Alltour: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep the motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when the engine has not run, it is emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the car is around Alltour. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the why it takes place and the how to avoid it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Alltour and Inverroy carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. That gap is where the slip lives.
Alltour: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Insh Road before work, or in the car park outside Commando Bar on the way home.
New-to-you vehicles come second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company motors put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Alltour or out in Spean Bridge.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Stronaba or a forecourt in Alltour, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On plenty of motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it beside the diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Spean Bridge? Ask the person who drove the car last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere in Highland, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Altour Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — once you have found your filler and read it.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Leave out stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Alltour?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
The staff at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will usually help pushing your car away when you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Alltour, leave it where it is.
Already run? Pull over once it is safe, then switch off. On the M9, over 50 miles from Alltour, that means the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Alltour is less a job than a run of under 50 miles towards Inverness, so say.
Alltour: what happens when our engineers get there
Our van reaches the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Spean Bridge Community Centre, or by the local primary school. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since those replies settle this work and the quote. The price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears away on its own, however long it sits. Filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your vehicle. Your engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before we leave.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Alltour itself
Alltour is a small locality in the Scottish Highlands, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 62 metres. Alltour lies near the villages of Spean Bridge and Aonachan, and is connected to the nearby city of Inverness, which is 48 miles away. Alltour has a population of around 561 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Alltour is also relatively distant from major cities like London, being around 419 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Alltour and across Highland
Being a small village, Alltour has the same vans as nearby areas — Aonachan, Highbridge — right through PH postcodes and the wider area beyond. Give a postcode that starts PH34 4, and our van gets there fastest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Spean Bridge Golf Club, a side street near Saint Joseph's Catholic Church: our technicians drain it where it sits. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Spean Bridge Mill, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Alltour motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Highland.