Saughton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Keep your engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Saughton, catching it before your engine turns usually means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel feeds your engine — yet many newer diesels driven about Saughton and Saughtonhall carry a second liquid too. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at each filling station visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
Saughton: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Stenhouse Drive, perhaps at The Terrace on the way home after work.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have 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 after it has started. It takes seconds, whether in Stenhouse or bang in the heart of Saughton.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Parkhead or a forecourt in Saughton, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Slateford, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Wherever across City of Edinburgh the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Stenhouse Gardens North, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you have found the filler and read it.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish once that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip slowly using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Saughton?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at BP, Sainsbury's or any forecourt will normally help to push the car clear when you ask. Your own drive in Saughton is the place it stays.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Saughton lies under 3 miles from the M8; there, take the first exit. A short hop across Saughton is a smaller job than a run towards Edinburgh, under 5 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Saughton, and what occurs next
Outside the local primary school, near St Salvador's Episcopal Church or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Those answers determine the work and our quote, and so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. That price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
The system is then purged thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. After that we fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we go.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Saughton, briefly
Saughton is a suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated approximately 3.2 miles west of Edinburgh's city centre. Saughton lies near the coast, with its elevation at around 52 metres, and is bordered by nearby places such as Stenhouse, Carrick Knowe, and Broomhouse. Saughton is predominantly composed of flat-type housing, which accommodates its population of around 7810 residents.
AdBlue drains round Saughton, and City of Edinburgh beyond
Throughout EH postcodes, the vans that cover Saughton — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Broomhouse and Carrick Knowe among them. Quickest of all: give a EH11 3 postcode to the van.
Shifting your car is not necessary. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Carrickvale Community Centre, a lay-by on the way to Royal Engineers Memorial Home, a driveway. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Hutchison Vale F.C. Community Sports Football Club, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
The short version for Saughton drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout City of Edinburgh.