Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Windyknowe
Pause here for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where your car stands in Windyknowe, is normally what it takes when caught before the engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it takes place and the how to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel feeds your engine — but plenty of modern diesels driven around Windyknowe and Standhill hold another fluid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both together under one flap. Diesel goes in at every forecourt call-out, again and again. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what cap it needs. It's in that gap that the slip happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Windyknowe?
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Langfauld Gardens, or heading home in the car park outside West Port Tavern.
Unfamiliar motors are next, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Windyknowe or out in Falside.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt in Windyknowe or a driveway over in Bathgate. Seconds, no more.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of cars mark what belongs in which inlet right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Bathgate, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever across West Lothian the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine off, and never rushed beside Durham Avenue at the roadside.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found the filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop when the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly using its own spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Windyknowe already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Morrisons or the BP, ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Windyknowe.
Already started? Stop when it's safe, then turn off. The next junction is the place to come off if you're on the M8, under 3 miles from Windyknowe. A short hop across Windyknowe is a smaller job than a run towards Dunfermline, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Windyknowe: what takes place when our engineers arrive
The van reaches the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, near Creamery Park, or outside the local primary school. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — which liquid, which amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. No one heads out before you have had our price over the phone.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it is running properly.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Windyknowe
Windyknowe is a suburban area situated on the riverside in West Lothian, with an elevation of around 145 metres. Windyknowe lies near several other small communities, including Falside, Whiteside, and Paulville, and is approximately 14 miles from Dunfermline. Windyknowe has a population of around 3945 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Windyknowe is located about 336 miles northwest of London, in the central lowlands of Scotland.
AdBlue drains about Windyknowe, and West Lothian beyond
Over EH postcodes, the teams that cover Windyknowe — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Paulville and Whiteside included. Quickest of all: quote a EH48 2 postcode to our van.
Shifting the vehicle isn't needed. Wherever it stands — beside Bathgate Library, in a layby heading to Meadow Park, on a drive — that is where it gets cleared. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Regal Community Theatre? Close to a county line? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
In short, for Windyknowe drivers
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across West Lothian.