Dornoch: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause here for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done right where your vehicle sits in Dornoch, is usually what it needs if found before the engine runs. Reading before the event? Then the rest covers why it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your engine — but plenty of modern diesels seen about Dornoch and Camore hold another liquid as well. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The error lives in that gap.
Dornoch: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a drive off Station Road before work, or in the car park at The Dornoch Inn on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: an unfamiliar car.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, carries on. Whether it occurs in Embo Street or the middle of Dornoch, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Lonemore or a forecourt around Dornoch.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- On plenty of cars, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Tain, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Highland that is.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and not rushed by High Street on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Step five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Dornoch?
Don't start your motor: that's how the short order of things starts. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the Morangie Filling Station or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Dornoch.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction is the place to leave if you are on the M90, over 50 miles from Dornoch. A short hop across Dornoch is a smaller job than a run towards Inverness, under 50 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers turn up around Dornoch
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, close to Mercat Cross or on your own driveway. Those replies settle this work and the price, and so we ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run. On the phone call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of dispatch.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of that washes out on its own, however long it sits. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The motor is started next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before we leave.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take about half an hour after our engineers are there. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Dornoch
Dornoch is a small town situated on the north-east coast of Scotland, in the Highland county, with a population of around 1482 people. Dornoch sits at a low elevation of 11 metres, looking out over the Dornoch Firth and the Moray Firth beyond. Dornoch is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is located near to other small settlements such as Embo Street, Pitgrudy, and Hilton. Dornoch is also within commuting distance of the city of Inverness, which is 28.6 miles away.
AdBlue drains round Dornoch, and Highland beyond
Dornoch is a coastal town, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Pitgrudy and Hilton among them, across the IV postcode area. A postcode starting IV25 3 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle does not need to shift. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a driveway, a road near Dornoch Community Centre, or a layby towards Station Wood. Guessing doesn't help at the back of St Finbar's, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
For Dornoch motorists, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Highland, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.