Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Touch: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. In Touch, catching it before the motor turns normally leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around Touch and Kingseathill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
There is a filler for every tank. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Touch: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Linburn Grove before work, or in the car park outside The Sweet Chestnut on the way home.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, carries on. Whether it occurs in Halbeath or the middle of Touch, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Townhill or a forecourt around Touch, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Dunfermline Queen Margaret? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
The day the light comes on, wherever across Fife, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Linburn Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- 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 your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Touch already?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Asda or the Shell, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. On your own drive around Touch? Then the vehicle stays where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction means the place to leave if you're on the M90, under a mile from Touch. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Dunfermline, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Touch.
Touch: what happens when our engineers arrive
Wherever the vehicle has stopped, whether by the local primary school, beside Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses or at home, the van comes to it. Our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if it's run, since those answers determine the work and our quote. The quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out unaided, no matter how long it is left. After the filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel is added, and then your car gets tested. Before we go, we start it and confirm that it is running correctly.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Touch, for a moment
Touch is a suburban area situated on the banks of a river in Fife, with a mix of detached housing and local amenities. Touch sits near the city of Dunfermline, which is approximately 1.8 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as Halbeath and Bellyeoman. Touch has a population of around 3731 people and is located at an elevation of 87 metres, providing views of the surrounding countryside.
Touch and Fife: AdBlue drains across the area
Touch is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Bellyeoman and Garvock Hill among them, across the KY postcode area. Quickest of all: quote a KY11 4 postcode for the van.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. Wherever it sits — near St Margaret's Parish Church, in a layby en route to Bellyeoman Park, on a drive — that's where it gets emptied. Guessing doesn't help at the back of The Vine Church, close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
The short version for Touch motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere around Fife.