Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Port Brae: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page down a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Port Brae. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the reasons it occurs and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many newer diesels on the roads about Port Brae and Linktown carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both side by side under one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Port Brae?
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Townsend Crescent, or outside Betty Nicols on the way home that evening.
New-to-you vehicles come next, too. Rentals, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
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. It's a few seconds, be it in Kirkcaldy or right in the heart of Port Brae.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Port Brae forecourt or a driveway out in Smeaton, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Kirkcaldy? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere in Fife the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Allen Court, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've located your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- 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 have already poured into the diesel side. Step five is off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Port Brae?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the Shell or somewhere else. Your own drive around Port Brae is the place it stays.
When the engine has been run already, stop safely then turn the car off. On the M90, under 10 miles from Port Brae, that means the next junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across Port Brae makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles to Edinburgh — so say about how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers turn up in Port Brae
Outside the local primary school, near St Peter's Episcopal Church or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. What liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the answers set both work and quote. That price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. After the filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle is tested. Before we leave, our engineers start the car and confirm that it is running correctly.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Port Brae
Port Brae is a coastal suburban area in Fife, situated near the towns of Kirkcaldy and Pathhead. Port Brae lies at an elevation of 24 metres, with views out to the Firth of Forth, and is located approximately 11 miles from Edinburgh. Port Brae is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing, which is typical of many Scottish coastal towns.
Port Brae and Fife: AdBlue drains across the area
Port Brae is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Pathhead and Hayfield among them, across the KY postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting KY1 2.
Shifting the car is not needed. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Kirkcaldy Old Kirk, a lay-by on the way to Oliphant's Garden, a driveway. Tricky to pin down, like the back of The Heart of Kirkcaldy? By a border? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
The short version for Port Brae drivers
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, anywhere around Fife: switch it off then phone 0333 366 0103.