AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cullen: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Cullen. Here before the event? In that case the rest covers why it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels on the roads about Cullen and Milton carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Cullen
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off The Square, or heading home in the car park outside The Three Kings.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. It's seconds, whether in Seatown or right in the centre of Cullen.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Bauds of Cullen or a forecourt in Cullen, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Keith, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — anywhere you are in Moray — a routine to follow.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine off, and not rushed beside Seafield Street on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
Cullen: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Leave your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs the pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle away when you ask. If you're on your own drive around Cullen, leave the vehicle where it is.
Already run? Stop once it is sensible, then turn off. Come off the M90 — over 50 miles out of Cullen — at the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Cullen is less work than a run of under 50 miles towards Aberdeen, and so say.
When we arrive in Cullen, what takes place?
Wherever the car came to rest, be it outside the local primary school, beside Mercat Cross or at home, our van comes to it. We ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run, because the answers settle the work and our price. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once your filter is flushed — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel is added, and then the car gets tested. Before leaving, our engineers start the engine and check that it is running correctly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine hasn't run take roughly half an hour after we are there. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Cullen, briefly
Cullen is a small town on the Moray coast, situated at an elevation of 37 metres and looking out to the North Sea. Cullen has a population of around 1341 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Cullen is located near other small communities such as Seatown, Lintmill, and Portknockie, and is within commuting distance of Aberdeen, which is 46 miles away. Cullen sits in a scenic area of Scotland, with the city of Aberdeen to the east and the Cairngorms National Park to the south.
AdBlue drains round Cullen, and Moray beyond
As a coastal town, Cullen shares its vans nearby places — Lintmill, Portknockie — all the way through AB postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting AB56 4.
The car doesn't need to move. Anywhere it stands — beside Memorial Hall, on a lay-by en route to Cullen Millennium Garden, on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of The Ice Cream Shop.
The short version for Cullen drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it is, anywhere across Moray: keep the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.