AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Castletown: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Keep your engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Castletown. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Castletown and Dunnet carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
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 sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what cap it needs. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Castletown: how it happens
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off B876, or at the pub in the village on the way home that evening.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, carries on. Castlehill or the middle of Castletown: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Castletown forecourt or a drive over in West Dunnet, take a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- The handbook says which it lives when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Thurso, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever you are across Highland — a simple routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Main Street.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Castletown: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — Gulf, Gleaner or any other — the staff will usually help roll the vehicle clear, if you ask. Your own driveway in Castletown is the place it stays.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M90 — over 50 miles out of Castletown — at the first exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Castletown is smaller work than a run of over 50 miles towards Inverness, and so tell us.
Our arrival in Castletown, and what happens next
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it by the local primary school, near Olrig Parish War Memorial or on your own drive, the van comes to it. The replies determine the work and our price, and so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of that washes out unaided, no matter how long it sits. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then the vehicle gets tested. After that we start the engine and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after we arrive, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Castletown
Castletown is a small coastal village in the Highland region of Scotland, situated at an elevation of 23 metres. Castletown lies near several other settlements, including Castlehill, Murkle, and Greenland, and is located approximately 82 miles from Inverness. Castletown has a population of around 654 people, with a predominance of semi-detached housing. Castletown is a relatively remote community, being over 500 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Castletown and across Highland
Castletown is a coastal village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Murkle and Greenland among them, across the KW postcode area. A postcode starting KW14 8 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car remains put. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Castlehill Heritage Centre, a lay-by on the way to small walkie, a drive. Awkward to explain, like the back of Borgie House Broch? By a border? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
The short version for Castletown drivers
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in Highland, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.