AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in The Heugh: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page aside a moment, keep the ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where the vehicle sits around The Heugh, is usually all it takes when found before your engine runs. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels on the roads round The Heugh and Preston carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in The Heugh?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Market Way before work, or in the car park outside The Brig Inn on the way home.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, keeps on. Whether it happens in Tranent or the middle of The Heugh, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Blindwells or a forecourt in The Heugh, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of cars mark which goes in which filler right there.
- The handbook shows which it lives if your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Prestonpans? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across East Lothian that is.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and not rushed by Bankpark Crescent on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- Both behind one flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel filler is still closed before raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check again, 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. Stage five stays out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in The Heugh?
Don't start the engine: that is where the short order of things begins. Keep your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels it by itself runs the pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, just where fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car away from the pump if you are on a forecourt — the JET, the Asda or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive around The Heugh, leave the car where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. The next junction is where to come off if you're on the M8, under 15 miles from The Heugh. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Edinburgh, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across The Heugh.
What happens when our engineers turn up around The Heugh
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, near Tranent Parish Church or on your own drive. Which fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because the answers set the work and price. During the call itself, you are told our quote — before anything else.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of that washes away on its own, no matter how long it is left. After the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, if required — clean diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. We don't go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy 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. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About The Heugh itself
The Heugh is a coastal suburban area in East Lothian, situated near the city of Edinburgh and overlooking the Firth of Forth. The Heugh sits at an elevation of 78 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. The Heugh is located close to nearby places such as Tranent and Meadowmill, and is approximately 8.8 miles from Edinburgh. The Heugh has a population of around 3312 residents.
AdBlue drains in The Heugh and across East Lothian
Over EH postcodes, our teams covering The Heugh — a residential suburb — work the nearby locations too, Meadowmill Cottages and Meadowmill among them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting EH33 1.
No need to shift the vehicle. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a street by Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, or a lay-by on the way to the green space at the edge of the village. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Tombstones Mining Memorial? By a county line? Checking beats guessing, and so phone.
For The Heugh drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere across East Lothian.