Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Westpans
Keep your engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when your motor hasn't turned, it is drained and fully purged where the vehicle is around Westpans. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around Westpans and Pinkie carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
There is a filler for each tank. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think which cap it needs. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
Westpans: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Ravensheugh Road before work, or in the car park outside Levenhall Arms on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once begun, keeps on. Whether it happens in Levenhall or the middle of Westpans, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Westpans or a driveway over in Lewisvale. A few seconds, no more.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Wallyford.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, anywhere across East Lothian, 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 Ravensheugh Brae.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- Both behind one flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel side is still closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Stage five is out.
Westpans: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief order, then. First: your engine remains unstarted. Leave your ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on alone runs the pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Tesco, the Thames or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Westpans.
When your motor has been run by now, pull over safely then turn the car off. The next junction means where to leave if you are on the M8, under 15 miles from Westpans. Distance matters — a short hop across Westpans makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Edinburgh — so say roughly how far it went.
Westpans: what takes place when our technicians get there
The van reaches the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Levenhall Golf Ball, or outside the local primary school. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask because those replies set the work and quote. You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Then the tank is emptied and your system cleaned thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of the car. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Westpans itself
Westpans is a coastal suburban area in East Lothian, situated near the city of Edinburgh and close to the Firth of Forth. Westpans has a relatively low elevation of 11 metres and is surrounded by other nearby places such as Levenhall and Pinkie Braes. Westpans is predominantly composed of flat-type housing, which is common in many Scottish suburban areas. Westpans is located approximately 6.6 miles from Edinburgh, making it a commuter-friendly location.
AdBlue drains in Westpans and across East Lothian
Pinkie Braes and Wallyford are among the places around Westpans, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over EH postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts EH21 7, and the van arrives fastest.
No need to move the vehicle. The drain takes place right there, be it a driveway, a road by Prestongrange Mining Museum, or a lay-by on the way to Pinkie Braes Park. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Kiln, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
Westpans people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around East Lothian.