How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St Ninians
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around St Ninians. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels around Braehead, as well as St Ninians, carry on two fluids; your engine takes just the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two side by side behind one flap. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think which cap it needs. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in St Ninians?
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off St. Ninians Roundabout before work, or in the car park at The Empire on the way home.
Unfamiliar cars are second, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles put 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 tip after it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of St Ninians or out in Borestone.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Chartershall or a forecourt around St Ninians, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check as you collect a hire car or fleet car — at Stirling's car park, say — rather than once the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever in Stirling, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, motor stopped, and never rushed beside Glasgow Road on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you've located the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Skip stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around St Ninians already?
Short order, then. First: your engine remains off. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Shell, JET or any forecourt will normally help to push your car clear when you ask. If you're on your own drive in St Ninians, leave it where it is.
Already started? Stop when it's safe, then turn off. St Ninians lies under a mile from the M9; there, take the first junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across St Ninians is smaller work than a trip of under 3 miles to Stirling, so tell us.
St Ninians: what takes place when our technicians turn up
Wherever your car has stopped, whether by the local primary school, near Holy Spirit or at home, our van travels to it. Which liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because those answers set the work and price. That price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Then that tank is cleared and your system cleaned thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We don't go until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after we arrive, provided the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About St Ninians, for a moment
St Ninians is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Stirling, situated near the River Forth at an elevation of 38 metres. St Ninians is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is close to nearby places such as Borestone and Broomridge. St Ninians sits in a scenic riverside setting, with the city of Stirling just over a mile away.
AdBlue drains about St Ninians, and Stirling beyond
Broomridge and Whins of Milton are among the places around St Ninians, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout FK postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning FK7 0, and our van gets there fastest.
Your car remains put. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a road near Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders War Memorial, or a lay-by towards Thistle Park. Awkward to explain, like the back of St Ninian's? Close to a county line? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
For St Ninians people, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Stirling, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.