AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dufftown: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Keep your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where the car stands around Dufftown, is normally what it needs when found before your engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your motor — yet plenty of modern diesels seen around Dufftown and Milltown of Auchindoun hold another fluid too. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of motors have a single flap for the two, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It is in the gap that the error happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Dufftown?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off The Square, or on the way home in the car park at Whisky Capital Inn.
New-to-you motors are second, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Kirktown of Mortlach or bang in the heart of Dufftown.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Dufftown or a driveway out in Milltown of Edinvillie. A few seconds, that's all.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to the diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook will say where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Keith? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever you are in Moray — a routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Balvenie Street, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — once you've found your filler and read it.
- The two behind one flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and look again that your diesel cap was never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out step five altogether.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Dufftown?
Do not start your engine: that's where the short order of things begins. Leave the ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on by itself runs your fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or the Gleaner, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Your own drive around Dufftown is the place it stays.
Already started? Pull over once it is safe, then switch off. Dufftown sits over 50 miles from the M90; there, take the first junction. A short hop across Dufftown is a smaller job than a run towards Inverness, under 50 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Dufftown: what happens when our technicians arrive
Our van comes to the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near Clock Tower, or outside the local primary school. The answers decide the work and the quote, so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after your tank is emptied. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of your car. We do not go until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, as long as your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. It's worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Dufftown, for a moment
Dufftown is a small town situated on the banks of the River Fiddich in Moray, Scotland, with a population of around 1631 people. Dufftown sits at an elevation of 188 metres, surrounded by rolling hills and scenic countryside, including the nearby Glen Rinnes. Dufftown is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is located near other small settlements such as Kirktown of Mortlach and Balvenie. Dufftown is also relatively close to the city of Inverness, which is 40.9 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Moray, Dufftown included
Glen Rinnes and Balvenie are among the towns around Dufftown, a riverside town, that the same vans cover, over AB postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting AB55 4.
Moving the vehicle isn't needed. Wherever it stands — beside Whisky Museum, on a lay-by heading to Tininver Park, on a drive — that's where it is drained. Tricky to explain, like the back of Mortlach Memorial Hall? Close to a border? Asking is better than guessing, and so phone.
Dufftown drivers: the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep it switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Moray.