Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Maxwellheugh: Why It Occurs
Keep your engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Maxwellheugh. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many current diesels on the roads round Maxwellheugh and Sprouston carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
There is a filler for every tank. Plenty of motors have a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Maxwellheugh
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Station Road, or on the way home in the car park outside Queen's Head Hotel.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: an unfamiliar car.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Kelso or the heart of Maxwellheugh: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Roxburgh or a forecourt around Maxwellheugh.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of cars show which goes in which filler right there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Scottish Borders that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Station Cottages, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Stop when your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently using its own spout.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
Find during the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Maxwellheugh?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — JET, Sainsbury's or another — the staff will usually help roll your car clear, if you ask. At home in Maxwellheugh? So the vehicle stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M8, under 50 miles from Maxwellheugh, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Edinburgh, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Maxwellheugh.
Maxwellheugh: what takes place when our engineers get there
Anywhere the car has stopped, whether outside the local primary school, near Bridgend Park Viewpoint or on your own drive, our van comes to it. What liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because the replies set the work and price. The price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of it clears away on its own, however long it is left. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Your engine is started next and checked to confirm it runs correctly, all before our technicians head off.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Maxwellheugh and where it is
Maxwellheugh is a suburban area situated on the riverside in the Scottish Borders, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 1549 residents. Maxwellheugh sits at an elevation of 60 metres, close to nearby places such as Kelso, Easter Softlaw, and Heiton. Maxwellheugh is located near the city of Edinburgh, which is approximately 38.6 miles away. Maxwellheugh has a relatively low elevation compared to other areas in the region.
Maxwellheugh and Scottish Borders: AdBlue drains across the area
Over TD postcodes, the teams covering Maxwellheugh — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Heiton and Easter Softlaw among them. A postcode starting TD5 8 gets our van to you fastest.
The car remains where it is. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Fort, a lay-by on the way to Bridgend Park, a driveway. Assuming won't help behind Site of Pinnaclehill House, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
The short version for Maxwellheugh drivers
First, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave it switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Scottish Borders.