How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Portobello
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Around Portobello, finding it before your engine runs normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. 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 does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Portobello and Craigentinny carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each filling station call-out, week in, week out. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Portobello: how it occurs
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Rosefield Place, or on the way home in the car park outside Dougal's.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, be it in Duddingston or bang in the centre of Portobello.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Portobello forecourt or a drive over in Brunstane, take a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you pick up a rental or company car — at Brunstane's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — anywhere you are in City of Edinburgh — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Sandford Gardens, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look again — confirm the diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. After that, start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Step five stays out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Portobello?
Short order, then. Top of it: your engine stays unstarted. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Asda or another — the staff will normally help roll the car away, if you ask. On your own drive around Portobello? Then your car remains put.
When your engine has run already, pull over safely then turn it off. Come off the M8 — under 10 miles out of Portobello — at the first exit. Mileage matters — a short hop across Portobello is a smaller job than heading under 3 miles towards Edinburgh — so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers get there in Portobello, what takes place?
Outside the local primary school, near St. John's RC Church or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. What liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask because the replies decide the work and price. You get that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes away unaided, however long it sits. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Portobello and where it is
Portobello is a coastal suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated approximately 2.8 miles from Edinburgh's city centre. Portobello has a relatively low elevation of 14 metres and is characterised by its predominantly flat-type housing. Portobello is close to nearby places such as Duddingston, Northfield, and Piershill, and is home to a population of around 5930 people.
AdBlue drains about Portobello, and City of Edinburgh beyond
As a residential suburb, Portobello has the same vans as surrounding areas — Northfield, Piershill — right through EH postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting EH15 1.
The car remains put. Draining takes place right there, be it a drive, a road near Portobello Town Hall, or a layby on the way to Brighton Park. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Portobello Library, on a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
For Portobello people, the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever around City of Edinburgh: keep it off then call 0333 366 0103.