Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ardersier: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where your vehicle stands around Ardersier, is normally all it needs if caught before your motor runs. Reading in advance? Then what follows covers why it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
No single liquid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels around Ardersier and Westerton run, with diesel feeding the motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Ardersier: how it takes place
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off School Place before work, or in the car park at Star Inn on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: a strange car.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Ardersier or out in Fort George.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Tornagrain or a forecourt in Ardersier, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook says where it is when the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Inverness Airport.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere across Highland, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Fulmar Crescent.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five entirely.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Ardersier?
Do not start the motor: that's how the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so leave it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will usually help pushing the car clear when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Ardersier.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Leave the M90 — over 50 miles out of Ardersier — at the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Ardersier is smaller work than a run of under 10 miles towards Inverness, and so say.
Ardersier: what takes place when we turn up
Wherever the car came to rest, be it by the local primary school, beside Ardersier War Memorial or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Which liquid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those answers set both work and quote. No one sets off until you have heard our quote by phone.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, once that tank is drained. 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 doesn't wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Your engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs smoothly, all before we head off.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Ardersier, for a moment
Ardersier is a small coastal village in the Highland council area, situated near Inverness and overlooking the Moray Firth. Ardersier has a population of around 828 people and is characterised by detached housing. Ardersier sits at a low elevation of 13 metres, close to notable nearby places such as Fort George and Lochside.
Ardersier and Highland: AdBlue drains across the area
Lochside and Easterton are among the places around Ardersier, a coastal village, that the same vans cover, over IV postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a IV2 7 postcode for the van.
Moving the car is not needed. Wherever it sits — near Dolphins, on a lay-by heading to Cromal Park, on a drive — that's where it is drained. Guessing won't help behind Ardersier War Memorial Hall, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
The short version for Ardersier drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Highland.