How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Luncarty
Stop here a minute if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where the car sits around Luncarty, is normally what it needs when caught before your engine runs. Reading in advance? Then the rest covers why it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one fluid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels around Luncarty and Moneydie run, with diesel for the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in on every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Luncarty
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Marshall Way, or heading home in the car park at the pub in the village.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second thing: an unfamiliar car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. It's a few seconds, whether out in Redgorton or right in the centre of Luncarty.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Luncarty forecourt or a driveway over in Newmiln, spend a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Perth? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — wherever you are in Perth and Kinross — a routine to follow.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor off, and never in a rush by Main Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently through its built-in spout.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Step five stays off limits.
Luncarty: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short list, then. Top of it: your engine remains off. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
At a forecourt — BP, Gulf or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the vehicle away, if you ask. If you're on your own driveway in Luncarty, leave the car where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. The next junction means the place to leave if you're on the M90, under 5 miles from Luncarty. About how far did it go? Crossing Luncarty is less a job than a trip of under 5 miles to Perth, and so tell us.
What occurs when our engineers get there around Luncarty
The van reaches the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside War Memorial, or outside the local primary school. Our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run, since those answers decide the work and our quote. That quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Then that tank is cleared and your system flushed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. Hence it counts more. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Then our technicians fire it up and check it runs properly before leaving.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Luncarty, for a moment
Luncarty is a village situated on the banks of the River Tay in Perth and Kinross, with a mix of rural and suburban characteristics. Luncarty lies close to the city of Perth, which is approximately 4 miles away, and is surrounded by other small settlements such as Redgorton and Stormontfield. Luncarty has a population of around 1136 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Luncarty's riverside setting and low elevation of 28 metres contribute to its distinctive landscape.
AdBlue drains across Perth and Kinross, Luncarty included
Over PH postcodes, our teams covering Luncarty — a village — work the nearby locations too, Waulkmill and Stormontfield included. A postcode starting PH1 3 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to move your car. Draining happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a street near Milton, or a lay-by towards Megan Black Memorial Garden. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Brownlands Park.
Luncarty people: the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere across Perth and Kinross: keep the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.