AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fochabers: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, keep the ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the engine hasn't turned, it's emptied and fully purged where your car sits in Fochabers. Here in advance? Then what follows covers how it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the motor — but plenty of newer diesels seen round Fochabers and Dipple hold a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of motors have a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every forecourt call-out, again and again. Much less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Fochabers?
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
On a driveway off East Street before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: a strange vehicle.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Fochabers or out in Ordiquish.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Trochelhill or a forecourt around Fochabers, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Keith, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light appears — anywhere you are around Moray — a routine to use.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside B9104 at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish when your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using its own spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Never carry on to stage five.
Fochabers: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your engine: that's where the short order of things begins. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The staff at JET, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing your car away if you ask. Your own driveway around Fochabers is where it stays.
When your motor has been run by now, pull over safely then switch it off. Fochabers sits over 50 miles from the M90; there, use the first junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Inverness, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Fochabers.
Our arrival in Fochabers, and what occurs next
Outside the local primary school, close to Fochabers Folk Museum and Heritage Centre or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since those replies decide this work and our quote. That quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after your tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or replaced as needed. The engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Fochabers and where it is
Fochabers is a village situated on the banks of the River Spey in Moray, Scotland, with a lakeside setting and an elevation of 44 metres. Fochabers has a population of around 1021 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Fochabers is located near several smaller settlements, including Ordiquish, Mosstodloch, and Crofts of Dipple, and is approximately 43 miles from the city of Inverness. Fochabers is also relatively distant from major cities in the south, with London being around 438 miles away.
Fochabers and Moray: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a village, Fochabers shares its vans nearby areas — Mosstodloch, Crofts of Dipple — all the way across IV postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quickest of all: quote a IV32 7 postcode for the van.
There's no need to move the vehicle. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a road by St Mary's, or a lay-by towards Leitch's Wood (Speymouth Forest). If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Oor Wullie Statue, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Fochabers people: the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere across Moray.