Stockbridge: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page aside a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where your car stands in Stockbridge, is normally what it needs if found before your motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it occurs and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — but plenty of current diesels seen round Stockbridge and Inverleith carry a second fluid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what filler it needs. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Stockbridge
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Dean Street before work, or in the car park outside The Stockbridge Tap on the way home.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Whether it takes place in Comely Bank or the middle of Stockbridge, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a Stockbridge forecourt or a driveway over in Warriston, take a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of motors show which belongs in each inlet right there.
- Can't find it beside the diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you collect a hire car or fleet car — from Edinburgh Waverley's car park, say — rather than once the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around City of Edinburgh that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Raeburn Place, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Leave out stage five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Stockbridge?
Don't start your engine: that is how the short order of things starts. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Morrisons, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump. If you are on your own driveway around Stockbridge, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Stockbridge sits under 5 miles from the M8; there, use the first junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Stockbridge is less work than a run of under a mile towards Edinburgh, so say.
Our arrival around Stockbridge, and what happens next
Our van comes to the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Number 7, or outside the local primary school. Which fluid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask since the answers decide both work and quote. During the phone call itself, you hear our price — before dispatch.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, once your 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. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or changed as needed. The motor is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians head off.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Stockbridge and where it is
Stockbridge is a suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated near the Water of Leith and approximately 0.9 miles northwest of Edinburgh city centre. Stockbridge sits at a relatively low elevation of 21 metres, reflecting its coastal setting. Stockbridge is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and is close to other nearby places such as Comely Bank and Canonmills.
AdBlue drains in Stockbridge and across City of Edinburgh
Stockbridge is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Canonmills and New Town among them, across the EH postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting EH4 1.
Shifting the car is not necessary. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Studio Bizio, a lay-by on the way to Jubilee Gardens, a drive. Awkward to explain, like the back of Saorsa Art Gallery? By a border? Asking beats assuming, and so ring.
Stockbridge motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in City of Edinburgh.