Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Drummond: Why It Occurs
Leave your motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where the car stands in Drummond, is normally all it takes when caught before the engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page explains the why it happens and the how to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of newer diesels seen around Drummond and Swordale carry a second fluid too. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of vehicles share a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Drummond
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Glen Skiach Loop, perhaps at the pub in the village on the way home that evening.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as easily, and after the pour starts, no part halts it. Evanton or the middle of Drummond: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Drummond forecourt or a drive over in Kinbeachie, take a couple of seconds over these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many vehicles mark what belongs in each filler just there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Alness? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever around Highland, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside Drummond Farm Road at the roadside.
- 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 the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look once more — confirm your diesel filler remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to step five.
Drummond: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Do not start your motor: that's how the short order of things starts. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Gleaner, the Morrisons or somewhere else. On your own drive around Drummond? So your car stays put.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M90, over 50 miles from Drummond, that means the next junction. A short hop across Drummond is a smaller job than a run towards Inverness, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians arrive around Drummond, what happens?
Outside the local primary school, close to Evanton Sports Centre or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. We ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run, since those replies settle this work and the quote. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Then the tank is drained and your system rinsed thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing clears out on its own, no matter how long it sits. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. The engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour once we arrive. 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 — so use the wait to check yours.
About Drummond and where it is
Drummond is a coastal suburban area in the Scottish Highlands, situated near the city of Inverness and close to the villages of Evanton and Ardullie. Drummond sits at an elevation of 31 metres, looking out over the surrounding landscape. Drummond is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its suburban nature. Drummond is located approximately 13 miles from Inverness, the capital of the Highlands.
AdBlue drains across Highland, Drummond included
Drummond is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places near it, Knock Rash and Ardullie among them, across the IV postcode area. A postcode starting IV16 9 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting your car is not necessary. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Kiltearn Parish War Memorial, a lay-by on the way to Evanton Wood, a drive. Guessing won't help at the back of Victoria Diamond Jubilee Hall, on a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
The short version for Drummond people
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, anywhere across Highland: switch it off then ring 0333 366 0103.