Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Plean
Stop here for a moment if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Plean. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the why it occurs and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one fluid but two: that is how many modern diesels around Plean and Auchenbowie run, with diesel feeding your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both together under one flap. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the error happens.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Plean?
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and running out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off President Kennedy Drive, perhaps at the pub in the village on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar motors are next, too. Hire cars, new motors and company motors put their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once begun, keeps on. Cowie or the heart of Plean: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Rosebank or a forecourt around Plean.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Larbert? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Stirling that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Main Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- Both under one flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel side stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to step five.
Plean: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the BP, the JET or somewhere else. If you're on your own driveway in Plean, leave the car where it stands.
Already started? Stop when it is safe, then switch off. The next exit means where to leave if you're on the M9, under a mile from Plean. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Stirling, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Plean.
Our arrival in Plean, and what takes place next
Anywhere your car came to rest, be it outside the local primary school, near Plean Library or at home, our van comes to it. We ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run, because those replies determine the work and our price. During the call itself, you are told the price — ahead of dispatch.
Then that tank is emptied and your system purged thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of that washes away on its own, no matter how long it is left. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The motor is started next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers go.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Plean and where it is
Plean is a village situated on the banks of the River Forth in central Scotland, near the city of Stirling. Plean has a relatively low elevation of 41 metres and is surrounded by nearby settlements such as Cowie and Bannockburn. Plean is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is located approximately 4 miles from Stirling, making it a commuter-friendly location. Plean is also relatively distant from major English cities, with London being around 350 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Plean and across Stirling
Torwood and Bannockburn are among the towns around Plean, a village, that the same teams cover, throughout FK postcodes. A postcode starting FK7 8 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. Draining happens right there, be it a driveway, a street by War Memorial, or a layby towards Walled Garden. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Plean Mining Disaster Memorial.
For Plean motorists, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, wherever across Stirling: switch it off and call 0333 366 0103.