AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Abernethy: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Abernethy. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels around St Madoes, as well as Abernethy, run on two liquids; the motor gets only your diesel. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in the gap that the slip lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Abernethy: how it happens
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Main Street before work, or in the car park at The Inn on the way home.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, keeps on. It's seconds, be it out in Glenfoot or bang in the centre of Abernethy.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Newburgh or a forecourt around Abernethy, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Many motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Perth? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere in Perth and Kinross the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Kirk Wynd.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish when that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly through the built-in spout.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap was never came off.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Do not go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Abernethy?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Gulf, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the car away when you ask. If you are on your own driveway around Abernethy, leave it where it is.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Abernethy lies under 3 miles from the M90; there, take the next junction. A short hop across Abernethy is a smaller job than a run towards Perth, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians turn up in Abernethy, what happens?
Our van reaches your car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, beside Abernethy Mercat Cross and War Memorial, or by the local primary school. What liquid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the replies set the work and quote. During the phone call itself, you are told our quote — before dispatch.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. 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 the flush counts more here than with petrol. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where required — clean diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle is tested. We don't go until it has been started and is running properly.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Abernethy and where it is
Abernethy is a small village in Perth and Kinross, situated near the coast at an elevation of 38 metres. Abernethy lies close to the River Tay, within a short distance of Perth and other nearby settlements like Glenfoot and Aberargie. Abernethy has a population of around 1250 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Abernethy is also relatively distant from major cities like London, being around 357 miles away.
Abernethy and Perth and Kinross: AdBlue drains across the area
Abernethy is a coastal village, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, Aberargie and Inchyra among them, across the PH postcode area. A postcode starting PH2 9 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to move the vehicle. Anywhere it sits — beside Kirk of St. Bride, on a lay-by heading to Nurse Peattie's Garden, at home — that's where it gets emptied. Tricky to explain, like the back of Museum of Abernethy? By a county line? Asking is better than guessing, so ring.
In short, for Abernethy motorists
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere across Perth and Kinross.