Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Woodend: Why It Occurs
Stop here a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Woodend. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels on the roads about Woodend and Cardenden carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both together under one flap. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Woodend: how it occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and running out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Woodend Road, or outside Railway Tavern on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: an unfamiliar car.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once begun, keeps on. Auchterderran or the middle of Woodend: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Dundonald or a forecourt in Woodend.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Cardenden? Ask whoever drove it last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Fife that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Red House Farm Road.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until 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.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Don't go on to step five.
Woodend: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start the engine: that's how the short order of things begins. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or the Sainsbury's, ask the staff to help roll the car away from the petrol pump. On your own drive in Woodend? Then the vehicle remains where it is.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M90, under 5 miles from Woodend, that means the next exit. A short hop across Woodend is a smaller job than a run towards Dunfermline, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Woodend: what occurs when we get there
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to Auchterderran Parish Church or on your own drive. Our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run, because the answers settle this work and the quote. On the call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of anything else.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and nothing clears out on its own, however long it sits. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. After that we start the engine and check it runs properly before we leave.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive, as long as the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Woodend and where it is
Woodend is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Fife, with a mix of detached housing and a relatively small population of around 827 residents. Woodend sits at an elevation of 96 metres, close to the nearby settlements of Auchterderran, Bowhill, and Jamphlars. Woodend is located near the city of Dunfermline, which is approximately 9.3 miles away, and is part of the wider Fife region. Woodend offers a tranquil setting, being some distance from major cities, with London over 345 miles to the south.
Woodend and Fife: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Woodend shares its vans nearby areas — Bowhill, Jamphlars — all the way through KY postcodes and the wider area around them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting KY5 0.
The car does not need to move. Wherever it sits — near Auchterderran War Memorial, in a layby en route to Balgreggie Park, on a drive — that is where it gets emptied. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Lady Josephine Pit Memorial.
The short version for Woodend people
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere around Fife.