How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wester Pencaitland
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Wester Pencaitland. Reading before the event? Then what follows covers why it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many modern diesels around Peaston Bank, like those in Wester Pencaitland, run on two liquids; the motor takes only your diesel. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean them, from its own tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both side by side under one flap. Diesel goes in on every filling station call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the mistake happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Wester Pencaitland
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and running out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Lempockwells Road, or at Winton Arms on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar motors come second, too. Hire cars, new cars and company motors place their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and after the pour begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Wester Pencaitland or out in Easter Pencaitland.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in West Saltoun or a forecourt in Wester Pencaitland.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Prestonpans.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere in East Lothian, use this routine.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor stopped, and not rushed beside A6093 on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Both under one flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel filler is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Stop when that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently using its built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — making sure your diesel cap stayed closed throughout. After that, start the car.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Wester Pencaitland already?
Do not start the motor: that's how the short order of things begins. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Gulf, UK Petroleum or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push your car clear if asked. Your own driveway in Wester Pencaitland is where it stays.
Already run? Pull over once it's safe, then turn off. Come off the M8 — under 25 miles out of Wester Pencaitland — at the first exit. A short hop across Wester Pencaitland is a smaller job than a run towards Edinburgh, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Wester Pencaitland: what happens when our engineers turn up
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, near Mercat Cross or on your own driveway. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — what fluid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Then that tank is emptied and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes away on its own, no matter how long it sits. After your filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. After that our technicians start the engine and check it runs correctly before we leave.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run take roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Wester Pencaitland itself
Wester Pencaitland is a village in East Lothian, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 88 metres. Wester Pencaitland lies near the city of Edinburgh, which is approximately 11.7 miles away, and is part of a network of nearby settlements including Easter Pencaitland and Pencaitland. Wester Pencaitland has a population of around 752 people, who mostly reside in semi-detached houses. Wester Pencaitland is located in a scenic area, with the city of Edinburgh and the surrounding countryside providing a range of amenities and attractions.
AdBlue drains about Wester Pencaitland, and East Lothian beyond
As a village, Wester Pencaitland shares its vans nearby places — Pencaitland, Boggs Holdings — all the way through EH postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting EH34 5.
No need to shift your car. We drain it where it is — a side street near Pencaitland Parish Church, a lay-by on the way to The Green, a drive. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Huntlaw Mine Memorial, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
For Wester Pencaitland motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the car switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout East Lothian.