AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Buchanhaven: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor hasn't turned, it is emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the car sits in Buchanhaven. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels near Buchanhaven and Roanheads run, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
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 the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Buchanhaven
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and running out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Parkhill Road, or at Station Bar on the way home that evening.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Peterhead or the middle of Buchanhaven: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Kirktown or a forecourt around Buchanhaven.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you collect a hire car or fleet car — from the nearest station's car park, say — rather than when the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are around Aberdeenshire — a routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Mid Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Both under a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel side stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to step five.
Buchanhaven: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Do not start your motor: that is where the short order of things starts. Leave your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it alone starts your pump. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Morrisons, the Esso or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Buchanhaven.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Buchanhaven sits over 50 miles from the M90; there, take the next junction. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Buchanhaven makes a smaller job than driving under 50 miles to Aberdeen — so say roughly how far it went.
What happens when our engineers get there in Buchanhaven
By the local primary school, close to Buchanaven Heritage Centre or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three answers — which liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. That price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, once the tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, where needed, swapped; clean diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
If your motor hasn't run, most 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 after dark. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Buchanhaven itself
Buchanhaven is a coastal suburban area in Aberdeenshire, situated near the town of Peterhead and approximately 27 miles northeast of Aberdeen. Buchanhaven sits at a low elevation of around 16 metres, with its predominant housing stock consisting of flats. Buchanhaven is part of a larger network of communities in the region, including nearby Blackhouse and Grange Gardens.
Buchanhaven and Aberdeenshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Buchanhaven is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Blackhouse and Grange Gardens among them, across the AB postcode area. A postcode starting AB42 1 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains put. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Raemoss Park, a lay-by on the way to Barclay Park, a drive. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Balmoor Stadium, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
In short, for Buchanhaven drivers
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in Aberdeenshire.