How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Gardenstown
Pause reading for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor hasn't turned, it is emptied and thoroughly cleaned where your car sits in Gardenstown. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one fluid but two: that's what many newer diesels around Gardenstown and Pennan run, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both side by side under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in the gap that the slip lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Gardenstown: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things lining up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off B9123, or outside Garden Arms Hotel on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company motors place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing halts the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Gardenstown or out in Seatown.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Gardenstown forecourt or a driveway out in Overbrae, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- On plenty of motors, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning comes on — wherever you are in Aberdeenshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine off, and never rushed beside Gamrie Brae on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Stop once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. 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 the diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to step five.
Gardenstown: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief order, then. First: the motor remains unstarted. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car away when you ask. Your own driveway in Gardenstown is the place it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. The next junction is the place to leave if you are on the M90, over 50 miles from Gardenstown. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Aberdeen, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Gardenstown.
What occurs when our engineers turn up around Gardenstown
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, near Gardenstown Public Hall or on your own drive. We ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because those answers determine this work and the price. During the phone call itself, you hear our price — before dispatch.
Then your tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. Hence it counts more. The filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of your car. After that our engineers fire it up and check it runs smoothly before leaving.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Gardenstown, briefly
Gardenstown is a small coastal village in Aberdeenshire, situated on the north-east coast of Scotland, with a population of around 649 people. Gardenstown has a mix of old and new housing, with detached homes being the predominant type, and is located near other small villages such as Seatown and Crovie. Gardenstown sits at an elevation of 107 metres, looking out to the North Sea, and is approximately 37 miles from the city of Aberdeen. Gardenstown is a relatively remote community, with London being around 435 miles to the south.
AdBlue drains across Aberdeenshire, Gardenstown included
Crovie and Dubford are among the places near Gardenstown, a coastal village, that the same vans cover, throughout AB postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting AB45 3.
The vehicle does not need to shift. Draining happens right there, be it a driveway, a road by Gardenstown Church, or a lay-by towards Broomybrae Wood. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of SS Vigilant Memorial.
The short version for Gardenstown drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Aberdeenshire.