Carr: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Stop reading for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Carr. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your engine — yet plenty of modern diesels driven about Carr and Lochanhully carry a second fluid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. It's in that gap that the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Carr: how it occurs
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Ellanwood Road before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: a new car.
No part stops 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 Carr or out in Carrbridge.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Duthil or a forecourt around Carr.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to the diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you collect a hire car or company car — from Carrbridge's car park, say — rather than once the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Highland that is.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Strathspey Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- Both behind a single flap? So confirm the cap on the diesel side is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Leave out step five entirely.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Carr?
Don't start the engine: that's how the short order of things starts. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Pace, another forecourt nearby or any other — the staff will normally help roll your car clear, when you ask. At home in Carr? So your car stays where it is.
When your motor has run already, pull over safely then turn the car off. On the M90, over 50 miles from Carr, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Carr is less work than a run of under 25 miles towards Inverness, so tell us.
Our arrival around Carr, and what occurs next
The van comes to your car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, near Wild Water Coaster, or by the local primary school. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — what fluid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. On the call itself, you are told the price — before dispatch.
Then that tank is cleared and the system purged thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of that washes away on its own, however long it is left. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We don't go until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Carr
Carr is a small suburban area situated on the riverside in the Scottish Highlands, with a population of around 520 people. Carr sits at an elevation of 264 metres, approximately 20 miles from Inverness, and is characterized by predominantly detached housing. Carr is close to nearby places such as Carrbridge, Bogroy, and Ellan, and is located about 425 miles from London. Carr occupies a scenic spot in the Highland landscape, with the River Carr likely influencing the local environment.
AdBlue drains in Carr and across Highland
Over PH postcodes, our teams covering Carr — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Ellan and Bogroy among them. Quickest of all: quote a PH23 3 postcode for our van.
Shifting the vehicle isn't needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Carrbridge Golf Club, a side street near Dinosaur Kingdom: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Carrbridge Village Hall? Close to a border? Asking is better than assuming, so phone.
For Carr people, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across Highland.