AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Burnhead: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Stop reading for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Burnhead. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many modern diesels in Kirkton, like those in Burnhead, run on two fluids; the motor takes only the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on each tank. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the slip lives.
Burnhead: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Archer Park, perhaps outside Great Scot on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a new motor.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and after the tip begins, no part halts it. Roadside or the heart of Burnhead: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Bush or a forecourt in Burnhead, check these. They take a few 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.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you collect a hire car or fleet car — from Laurencekirk's car park, say — not once the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever around Aberdeenshire, use this routine.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Highview Grove.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap never came off.
Discover at the second or third step that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Leave out step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Burnhead?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Asda, another forecourt nearby or any other — the staff will normally help roll the car clear, when you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Burnhead, leave the vehicle where it is.
When the motor has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe then switch the car off. On the M90, under 50 miles from Burnhead, that means the next junction. A short hop across Burnhead is a smaller job than a run towards Aberdeen, under 50 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Burnhead, and what happens next
The van comes to the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside St Cyrus Public Hall, or outside the local primary school. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — what fluid, which amount, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. The quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, once your tank is emptied. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away unaided. That is why it matters more. Testing is last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Next we fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before we go.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Burnhead
Burnhead is a small suburban area in Aberdeenshire, situated near the coast at an elevation of 82 metres. Burnhead lies within commuting distance of Aberdeen, which is 28.7 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as Roadside, Lochside, and St Cyrus. Burnhead has a population of around 1028 people and predominantly features detached housing.
AdBlue drains around Burnhead, and Aberdeenshire beyond
Over DD postcodes, the vans covering Burnhead — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, St Cyrus and Lochside among them. Give a postcode beginning DD10 0, and our van arrives fastest.
Moving your car is not necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to St Cyrus National Nature Reserve, a side street near St Cyrus War Memorial: our engineers drain it where it sits. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Cyrus Parish Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Burnhead people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Aberdeenshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.