How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pencaitland
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. In Pencaitland, catching it before your motor turns usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels on the roads around Pencaitland and Boggs Holdings carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Pencaitland
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Wester Tyne Brae before work, or in the car park outside Winton Arms on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a strange motor.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Pencaitland or out in Easter Pencaitland.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Peaston Bank or a forecourt in Pencaitland.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- The handbook says which it lives when the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Prestonpans? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — wherever you are around East Lothian — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Pringles Place, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — once you have located the filler and read the cap.
- Both under a single flap? Then make sure the lid on the diesel filler is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Pencaitland?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Gulf, UK Petroleum or any other — the attendants will usually help push your car clear, if you ask. At home in Pencaitland? So the vehicle stays put.
Already started? Stop once it is safe, then turn off. Leave the M8 — under 25 miles out of Pencaitland — at the first exit. A short hop across Pencaitland is a smaller job than a run towards Edinburgh, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when our engineers get there around Pencaitland
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, near Huntlaw Mine Memorial or on your own driveway. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. During the phone call itself, you hear our quote — ahead of dispatch.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after the tank is drained. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and nothing washes away unaided, however long it sits. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Next our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before leaving.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians get there, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Pencaitland and where it is
Pencaitland is a locality in East Lothian, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 93 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Pencaitland lies approximately 12 miles east of Edinburgh and 324 miles north of London, making it a relatively rural area with nearby settlements including Easter Pencaitland and Wester Pencaitland. Pencaitland has a population of around 726 residents, who live in a mix of old and new buildings. Pencaitland is close to other nearby places such as West Saltoun, which adds to its rural charm.
AdBlue drains across East Lothian, Pencaitland included
Pencaitland is a small village, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, Wester Pencaitland and West Saltoun among them, across the EH postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts EH34 5, and the van arrives fastest.
Shifting the vehicle is not necessary. Anywhere it stands — near Pencaitland Parish Church, in a layby heading to Walled Garden, on a drive — that is where it is drained. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Mercat Cross? Close to a county line? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
For Pencaitland drivers, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, anywhere around East Lothian: switch it off then call 0333 366 0103.