How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Marine Court
Stop reading a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Marine Court, finding it before the engine turns normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels around Winterfield Mains, as well as Marine Court, carry on two liquids; the motor gets just your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Many of motors share a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Marine Court?
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a drive off Marine Road before work, or in the car park outside Castle Hotel heading home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode follows.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as easily, and after the tip starts, nothing stops it. It's a few seconds, whether out in Stanley Place or bang in the heart of Marine Court.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in West Barns or a forecourt around Marine Court, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of motors mark which belongs in which inlet right there.
- Can't see it next to the diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Dunbar? Check with whoever drove it last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, anywhere across East Lothian, follow this routine.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never rushed beside Bayswell Park on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Marine Court already?
Brief order, then. First: your engine remains off. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the JET, the Asda or anywhere else. Your own driveway around Marine Court is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Come off the M8 — under 50 miles out of Marine Court — at the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Edinburgh, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Marine Court.
Marine Court: what takes place when we arrive
Anywhere your car came to rest, be it outside the local primary school, beside War Memorial or on your own drive, our van comes to it. What fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask because the answers set the work and price. You hear that quote by phone, before anybody sets off.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your 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. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
Unrun vehicles mostly need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Marine Court and where it is
Marine Court is a coastal locality in East Lothian, situated near the town of Dunbar and overlooking the North Sea. Marine Court sits at a relatively low elevation of 26 metres, with the nearby beaches and coastal paths being popular with residents and visitors alike. Marine Court is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing, which is typical of many coastal towns in the region.
Marine Court and East Lothian: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout EH postcodes, the vans that cover Marine Court — a coastal area — work the nearby places too, Belhaven and Dunbar included. Give a postcode that starts EH42 1, and our van arrives fastest.
No need to shift your car. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Dunbar Artillery Memorial, a lay-by on the way to Winterfield Park, a drive. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Mushroom Sculptures, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Marine Court motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across East Lothian, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.