Elgin: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave the motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Elgin. Here in advance? In that case the rest explains how it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
No single liquid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels near Elgin and Pittendreich run, with diesel for the engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both together under one flap. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Elgin?
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off A96 before work, or in the car park outside The Muckle Cross on the way home.
Unfamiliar motors come second, too. Rentals, new motors and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, keeps on. It's seconds, whether out in Bishopmill or right in the centre of Elgin.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Moss of Barmuckity or a forecourt around Elgin, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, wherever across Moray, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Cumming Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- Both under one flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel side is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Do not go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Elgin?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Diluting it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Tesco, the Asda or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Elgin.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Elgin lies over 50 miles from the M90; there, take the first exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Elgin is less work than a run of under 50 miles to Inverness, and so say.
Our arrival in Elgin, and what occurs next
Outside the local primary school, close to Elgin Town Hall or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. We ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run, since those replies decide the work and our quote. No one sets off until you've had our quote over the phone.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out unaided, however long it is left. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed if necessary. We do not go until it has been started and is running properly.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine hasn't run take roughly half an hour once we are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Elgin and where it is
Elgin is a town situated on the River Lossie in Moray, Scotland, with a relatively low elevation of 18 metres above sea level. Elgin lies approximately 35 miles east of Inverness and is surrounded by smaller settlements such as Bishopmill and New Elgin. Elgin has a population of around 14,000 people and predominantly features semi-detached housing. Elgin is located a significant distance from major cities like London, at around 443 miles away.
AdBlue drains round Elgin, and Moray beyond
New Elgin and Moycroft are among the towns around Elgin, a riverside town, that the same vans cover, throughout IV postcodes. Give a postcode beginning IV30 1, and our van gets there fastest.
Your car stays put. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Seaforth Highlanders Memorial, a lay-by on the way to Cooper Park, a driveway. Guessing won't help at the back of Elgin Library, on a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
In short, for Elgin motorists
Always, the cap; then, the pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, wherever around Moray: keep the car off then call 0333 366 0103.