Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Firhill
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Around Firhill, catching it before the engine runs normally leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Plenty of current diesels on the roads round Firhill and Shillinghill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Firhill?
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and running out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Kirkside, perhaps at the pub in the village on the way home that evening.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and after the pour begins, nothing stops it. It's seconds, be it in Burnside or right in the centre of Firhill.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt in Firhill or a driveway out in Dalmore. A few seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you pick up a hire car or company car — from Alness's car park, say — not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever around Highland, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and never rushed beside Alness Distributor Road at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Skip stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Firhill already?
Don't start the engine: that's how the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The staff at Morrisons, Gleaner or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear if you ask. Your own drive around Firhill is the place it should stay.
When your motor has run already, pull over somewhere safe then turn the vehicle off. Firhill sits over 50 miles from the M90; there, use the first junction. Distance matters — a quick hop across Firhill makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Inverness — so tell us about how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers arrive in Firhill
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to West End Community Centre or on your own drive. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run, because the replies settle this work and our quote. The price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Then that tank is emptied and the system cleaned thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears away unaided. Hence it matters more. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. After that our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before leaving.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Firhill and where it is
Firhill is a coastal suburban area in the Scottish Highlands, situated approximately 15 miles from Inverness. Firhill sits at a relatively low elevation of 40 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Firhill is characterized by its predominance of terraced housing, which reflects the area's residential development. Firhill is located near other small communities, including Burnside and Westford.
Firhill and Highland: AdBlue drains across the area
Westford and Alness are among the towns around Firhill, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over IV postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting IV17 0.
Shifting the car is not needed. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Alness Parish, Church of Scotland, a lay-by on the way to Coulhill Wood, a driveway. Guessing won't help at the back of Alness Old Parish Church (ruin), on a border, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
In short, for Firhill people
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the car switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Highland.