Marchmont: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Stop reading a minute when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Marchmont. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many current diesels on the roads about Marchmont and Bruntsfield carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which cap to use. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Marchmont: how it happens
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Marchmont Crescent, or heading home in the car park outside The Earl of Marchmont.
Unfamiliar vehicles are second, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company motors place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Marchmont or out in The Grange.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Tollcross or a forecourt around Marchmont, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show which belongs in each filler just there.
- The handbook shows where it is if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Edinburgh Waverley? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around City of Edinburgh that is.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush by Spottiswoode Road on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Shut the cap, and check again — making sure the diesel filler remained closed the whole time. Only then, start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Marchmont already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the JET or the BP, ask the staff to help roll the car away from the pump. If you are on your own driveway around Marchmont, leave it where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Come off the M8 — under 5 miles out of Marchmont — at the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Edinburgh, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Marchmont.
When our technicians arrive in Marchmont, what takes place?
The van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside JK Rowling, or by the local primary school. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — which liquid, what amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. That quote is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and then your vehicle is tested. The engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Marchmont, for a moment
Marchmont is a suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated approximately 1.2 miles from Edinburgh city centre. Marchmont occupies a coastal setting with an elevation of around 94 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Marchmont is characterised by its predominantly flat-type housing, which accommodates a population of around 10618 residents. Marchmont is located near other suburban areas, including The Grange, Sciennes, and Grange Park.
AdBlue drains around Marchmont, and City of Edinburgh beyond
As a residential suburb, Marchmont shares its vans nearby areas — Sciennes, Grange Park — right across EH postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Fastest of all: quote a EH9 1 postcode to our van.
The vehicle does not need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Bruntsfield Links, a side street near Doodles: our engineers drain the car where it stands. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of German Church.
Marchmont drivers: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep it off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across City of Edinburgh.