Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Port Edgar
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where your car sits around Port Edgar, is normally what it takes when caught before the motor runs. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the engine — but plenty of current diesels driven around Port Edgar and Parkhead carry another fluid as well. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
There's a filler on each tank. Many of vehicles have a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Port Edgar: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off Queensferry Crossing before work, or in the car park outside Queens Crossing Brewers Fayre heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode follows.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and after the pour begins, nothing halts it. Queensferry or the middle of Port Edgar: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Woodend or a forecourt around Port Edgar, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many motors show what belongs in which inlet right there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you pick up a rental or company car — at Dalmeny's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light comes on, anywhere in City of Edinburgh, use this routine.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor off, and never in a rush by Linn Mill at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- The two behind one flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel filler is still closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — making sure your diesel filler remained shut the whole time. After that, start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Port Edgar?
Do not start your engine: that is where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so leave it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at BP, Shell or another forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle clear when asked. On your own drive around Port Edgar? So the car remains put.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit is where to come off if you're on the Queensferry Crossing, under a mile from Port Edgar. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Port Edgar is smaller a job than a run of under 10 miles towards Dunfermline, and so say.
When our technicians get there around Port Edgar, what takes place?
Our van reaches your car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside War Memorial, or outside the local primary school. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — which liquid, which quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. On the phone call itself, you hear the quote — ahead of anything else.
Then the tank is cleared and the fuel system purged thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts 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. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of your vehicle. Before we leave, we fire it up and confirm that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our engineers get there, as long as your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Port Edgar and where it is
Port Edgar is a coastal locality in the City of Edinburgh, situated near the Firth of Forth and close to the nearby towns of Queensferry and North Queensferry. Port Edgar has a population of around 988 people and is characterised by terraced housing. Port Edgar sits at an elevation of 35 metres, overlooking the estuary and the surrounding landscape. Port Edgar is located near the city of Dunfermline, which is approximately 5.8 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Port Edgar and across City of Edinburgh
Newton and North Queensferry are among the towns near Port Edgar, a coastal area, that the same vans cover, over EH postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts EH30 9, and the van gets there fastest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. Anywhere it sits — beside 21st Craigalmond (South Queensferry) Scout Group, on a lay-by en route to King George V Park, at home — that's where it gets cleared. Assuming won't help behind Forth Bridges Viewpoint, on a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
Port Edgar motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across City of Edinburgh.