Clachnaharry: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down for now, leave the ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the motor has not run, it's drained and fully rinsed where the vehicle is around Clachnaharry. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it takes place and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels in Dalneigh, as well as Clachnaharry, run on two liquids; your motor takes only the diesel. 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, separate fillers. Many of motors share a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in that gap that the mistake happens.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in Clachnaharry?
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Scorguie Road before work, or in the car park outside Clachnaharry Inn on the way home.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's a few seconds, whether out in Scorguie or right in the heart of Clachnaharry.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Clachnaharry or a driveway over in Kinmylies. A few seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- On plenty of motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to the diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Inverness, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever it is in Highland — a simple 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 High Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Clachnaharry?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Leave the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it by itself runs the pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at Esso, BP or another forecourt will usually help to push the vehicle away if you ask. On your own drive around Clachnaharry? So the vehicle remains where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Clachnaharry lies over 50 miles from the M90; on it, take the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Inverness, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Clachnaharry.
Clachnaharry: what occurs when our technicians arrive
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, whether by the local primary school, near Thomas Telford Memorial or at home, our van comes to it. Which liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the answers set the work and price. Nobody heads out until you have had the price by phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once the filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where required — clean diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle gets tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running correctly.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Clachnaharry
Clachnaharry is a coastal suburban area situated near Inverness, with Clachnaharry being one of the closest suburbs to the city centre. Clachnaharry sits at a low elevation of around 8 metres, looking out over the Moray Firth. Clachnaharry is characterised by its semi-detached housing and proximity to nearby places such as Scorguie and Merkinch.
AdBlue drains around Clachnaharry, and Highland beyond
Clachnaharry is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Merkinch and South Kessock among them, across the IV postcode area. A postcode starting IV3 8 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle isn't needed. Draining happens right there, be it a driveway, a road near Battle of Clachnaharry Memorial, or a layby towards Blackpark. Tricky to explain, like the back of The Ledge Climbing Gym? Close to a border? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
Clachnaharry drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it stands, wherever in Highland: switch it off then phone 0333 366 0103.