Muirhouse: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your motor has not turned, it's drained and fully rinsed where the car is in Muirhouse. Reading in advance? Then what follows covers how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Muirhouse and Davidsons Mains carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of motors have a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at every forecourt visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
Muirhouse: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
On a drive off Pennywell Medway before work, or in the car park outside Ferry Boat Bar heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in West Pilton or the middle of Muirhouse, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Blackhall or a forecourt around Muirhouse.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says where.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you collect a hire car or company car — at Haymarket's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
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.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Pennywell Gardens.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- Both under a single flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel filler is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Stop once your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly through the own spout.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Muirhouse already?
Brief list, then. First: the engine remains unstarted. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Morrisons, the Shell or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive around Muirhouse, leave it where it is.
Where the engine has run already, stop safely then switch the car off. Leave the M8 — under 5 miles out of Muirhouse — at the next exit. Mileage counts — a short hop across Muirhouse makes a smaller job than driving under 5 miles towards Edinburgh — so say about how far it went.
When our technicians arrive in Muirhouse, what takes place?
Our van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, near The Old Kirk & Muirhouse Parish Church, or by the local primary school. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because the answers settle the work and the price. During the phone call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of dispatch.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if required — clean diesel is added, and then your vehicle gets tested. Next our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Muirhouse, for a moment
Muirhouse is a suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated approximately 3 miles northwest of Edinburgh's city centre. Muirhouse sits near the coast, with its elevation at around 40 metres, and is bordered by nearby places such as West Pilton and Silverknowes. Muirhouse is predominantly composed of flat-type housing, which accommodates its population of around 10,145 residents.
AdBlue drains around Muirhouse, and City of Edinburgh beyond
Muirhouse is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Silverknowes and Drylaw among them, across the EH postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts EH4 4, and our van arrives quickest.
The car doesn't need to shift. The drain happens on the spot, whether a drive, a road by North Edinburgh Arts, or a layby on the way to North Edinburgh Grows. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Christie Gillies Park.
In short, for Muirhouse motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere across City of Edinburgh.