AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Merchiston: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where the vehicle stands in Merchiston, is usually all it takes when found before your motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of current diesels on the roads about Merchiston and Gorgie carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
There is a filler for every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Merchiston: how it takes place
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Mid Gillsland Road, or heading home in the car park at The Caley Sample Room.
New-to-you vehicles come second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company cars put their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing halts the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Merchiston or out in North Merchiston.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Merchiston forecourt or a driveway out in Morningside, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Slateford? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in City of Edinburgh that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Gillsland Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and look again that your diesel cap never came off.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Merchiston already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the JET, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the pump. On your own drive in Merchiston? Then the car stays put.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Merchiston sits under 5 miles from the M8; on it, take the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Edinburgh, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Merchiston.
Our arrival in Merchiston, and what takes place next
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, near The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or on your own drive. Our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because the replies determine this work and our quote. On the call itself, you hear our quote — before dispatch.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out by itself. Hence it matters more. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. The engine is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians head off.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need about half an hour after our engineers are there. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Merchiston and where it is
Merchiston is a suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated approximately 1.9 miles from Edinburgh city centre. Merchiston occupies a coastal setting with an elevation of around 86 metres, and is characterised by predominantly flat-type housing. Merchiston is close to nearby places such as North Merchiston, Churchhill, and Dalry, and is home to a population of around 9601 residents.
AdBlue drains around Merchiston and across City of Edinburgh
Throughout EH postcodes, the vans covering Merchiston — a residential suburb — work the nearby locations too, Dalry and Churchhill among them. A postcode starting EH10 5 gets our van to you fastest.
The car remains put. We drain it where it is — a side street near College War Memorial, a lay-by on the way to Merchiston Garden, a drive. Guessing won't help behind Polwarth Church, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and check.
For Merchiston motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere around City of Edinburgh.