Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Craigiebuckler: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor has not run, it is emptied and fully purged where the car sits around Craigiebuckler. Reading before the event? Then what follows covers how it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's how many newer diesels near Craigiebuckler and Braeside carry, with diesel for the engine. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean them, from its own tank.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Craigiebuckler?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Springfield Avenue, perhaps outside the pub in the village on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: a new motor.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Whether it takes place in Seafield or the middle of Craigiebuckler, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Garthdee or a forecourt around Craigiebuckler, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- On plenty of vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Aberdeen.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — anywhere you are around Aberdeen City — a simple routine to follow.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine off, and not rushed by Craigiebuckler Avenue at the roadside.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you've found the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and look again that your diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Skip step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Craigiebuckler already?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Co-op, Shell or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing your car away when you ask. If you're on your own drive around Craigiebuckler, leave the car where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M90, over 50 miles from Craigiebuckler, that means the next junction. Distance counts — a short hop across Craigiebuckler makes a smaller job than driving under 3 miles towards Aberdeen — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival in Craigiebuckler, and what occurs next
Outside the local primary school, near Craigiebuckler Parish Church or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Those replies decide this work and the price, and so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody heads out until you have heard our price by phone.
Draining that tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. That is why it counts more. After your filter is cleaned — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally your car gets tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians get there, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Craigiebuckler itself
Craigiebuckler is a suburban area situated on the River Don in Aberdeen City, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Craigiebuckler sits at an elevation of 77 metres, close to the city centre and near neighbouring areas like Seafield and Summerhill. Craigiebuckler is located approximately 2.4 miles from Aberdeen city centre, making it a popular residential choice. Craigiebuckler has a population of around 4001 people, with a range of community facilities and services available.
Craigiebuckler and Aberdeen City: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Craigiebuckler has the same vans as surrounding areas — Summerhill, Mannofield — all the way through AB postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quickest of all: give a AB15 8 postcode for the van.
The car doesn't need to shift. Anywhere it stands — near 2009 North Sea Super Puma Crash Memorial, in a lay-by en route to Walker Dam and Rubislaw Link, on a drive — that is where it gets cleared. Tricky to explain, like the back of The Gordon Highlanders Museum? By a border? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
Craigiebuckler drivers: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Aberdeen City, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.