AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tamfourhill: How It Happens and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, leave the ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the engine hasn't run, it is emptied and fully rinsed where your vehicle is in Tamfourhill. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it happens and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels around Camelon, like those in Tamfourhill, run on two liquids; your engine takes just your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. It is in the gap that the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Tamfourhill?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Cumbrae Drive, or outside Mariner Bar on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar motors are second, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company cars place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as readily, and once the tip starts, nothing halts it. Whether it occurs in Carmuirs or the middle of Tamfourhill, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Bantaskin or a forecourt in Tamfourhill.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Camelon, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
The day the light comes on, anywhere around Falkirk, follow this routine.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Kilbrennan Drive.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- The two behind a single flap? Then make sure the lid on the diesel filler is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip gently through the own spout.
- Shut the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel cap remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Skip stage five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Tamfourhill already?
Do not start the motor: that's how the short order of things begins. Keep the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs your pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — BP, Tesco or another — the staff will usually help push the car away, if you ask. Your own drive in Tamfourhill is the place it stays.
Already run? Pull over when it is sensible, then switch off. On the M876, under 3 miles from Tamfourhill, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Tamfourhill is less a job than a trip of under 10 miles to Stirling, so tell us.
Our arrival around Tamfourhill, and what happens next
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, close to Tamfourhill Community Centre or on your own driveway. Which fluid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because the answers decide the work and quote. Nobody sets off before you have had our price over the phone.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. With AdBlue that matters 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. Filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a check of your car. The engine is started next and checked to confirm it runs correctly, all before our technicians go.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor hasn't run need about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Tamfourhill, for a moment
Tamfourhill is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Falkirk, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Tamfourhill sits at an elevation of 62 metres, close to the nearby communities of Carmuirs, Summerford, and Greenbank. Tamfourhill is located near Stirling, which is approximately 9 miles away, and is part of the wider Falkirk area. Tamfourhill has a population of around 3198 residents.
AdBlue drains across Falkirk, Tamfourhill included
Over FK postcodes, the teams covering Tamfourhill — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Greenbank and Summerford included. Quickest of all: quote a FK1 4 postcode for our van.
No need to shift the car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Tamfourhill Open Space, a side street near Watling Lodge Roman Fortlet: our technicians drain the car where it stands. Awkward to explain, like the back of Anchor? Close to a county line? Asking beats assuming, so phone.
The short version for Tamfourhill drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave it switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Falkirk.