Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wilton Dean
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around Wilton Dean, finding it before the engine turns normally means a drain and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it happens and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels around Wilton, as well as Wilton Dean, run on two fluids; the motor takes just your diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for every tank. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Wilton Dean?
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Wilton Park Road, or heading home in the car park at Stags Head.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Wilton Dean or out in Cauld.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Hawick or a forecourt around Wilton Dean.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Many motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at the nearest station? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Scottish Borders that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Overhall Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Finish when the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip gently through the own spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Step five stays out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Wilton Dean already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Sainsbury's, Morrisons or another — the staff will usually help push the vehicle away, when you ask. Your own driveway around Wilton Dean is where it should stay.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the A74(M) — under 50 miles out of Wilton Dean — at the first junction. A short hop across Wilton Dean is a smaller job than a run towards Carlisle, under 50 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when we get there around Wilton Dean
Wherever the car came to rest, whether outside the local primary school, beside Jimmie Guthrie Statue or on your own drive, the van comes to it. The answers settle the work and our price, so our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. The quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Draining your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. After that our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we go.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after we get there, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Wilton Dean and where it is
Wilton Dean is a suburban area situated on the riverside in the Scottish Borders, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 517 residents. Wilton Dean sits at an elevation of 134 metres, near the communities of Cauld, West End, and Lynnwood. Wilton Dean is located approximately 37 miles from Carlisle and 292 miles from London, making it a relatively rural suburb. Wilton Dean has a scenic setting, with the river running nearby.
AdBlue drains around Wilton Dean, and Scottish Borders beyond
As a residential suburb, Wilton Dean has the same vans as surrounding areas — West End, Lynnwood — all the way across TD postcodes and the wider area beyond. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting TD9 7.
Your car stays where it is. Wherever it stands — near Hawick War Memorial, on a lay-by heading to Walled Garden, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Hawick Museum? By a county line? Asking beats assuming, so ring.
For Wilton Dean motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Scottish Borders, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.