Braeside: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Braeside. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of modern diesels in Kaimhill, like those in Braeside, carry on two liquids; your motor takes just your diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Braeside: how it takes place
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Braeside Terrace, or at Brig 'O' Dee on the way home that evening.
Then your car 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.
Lastly, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and after the tip begins, nothing halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Braeside or out in Mannofield.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Craigiebuckler or a forecourt in Braeside, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- On plenty of motors, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Aberdeen? Check with the person who drove it last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — wherever it is around Aberdeen City — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Springfield Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — once you have found the filler and read the cap.
- The two behind a single flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel side stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Braeside?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Co-op, the Asda or anywhere else. Your own driveway around Braeside is the place it stays.
Already run? Stop when it is sensible, then switch off. Braeside lies over 50 miles from the M90; there, use the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Braeside is smaller work than a run of under 3 miles towards Aberdeen, so tell us.
When our engineers get there around Braeside, what takes place?
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to 8 ABD or on your own drive. Both the work and the price depend on three answers — which liquid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. Nobody sets off before you have heard our quote by phone.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is emptied. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. That is why it counts more. After your filter is flushed — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel is added, and then your vehicle gets tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we get there, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Braeside itself
Braeside is a suburban area in Aberdeen City, situated near the coast and approximately 2.4 miles from Aberdeen city centre. Braeside sits at an elevation of around 63 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Braeside is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which is typical of many suburban areas in Scotland. Braeside is close to nearby places such as Mannofield, Garthdee, and Seafield.
AdBlue drains around Braeside and across Aberdeen City
As a residential suburb, Braeside has the same vans as nearby places — Garthdee, Seafield — right through AB postcodes and the wider area around them. Fastest of all: give a AB15 7 postcode for our van.
Shifting the car is not needed. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Aberdeenshire Cricket Club, a side street near 9 ABD: our technicians drain the car where it is. Guessing doesn't help behind Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
Braeside people: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across Aberdeen City.