How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Golspie
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, leave the ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor has not run, it is emptied and fully purged where your vehicle sits around Golspie. Here before the event? In that case what follows covers how it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to your motor — yet many modern diesels driven around Golspie and Uppat carry a second liquid as well. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the gas.
There's a filler for every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Golspie
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Fountain Road before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Golspie or out in Drummuie.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Littleferry or a forecourt in Golspie.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of cars show what goes in each filler just there.
- Can't see it beside your diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere around Highland, follow this routine.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Seaforth Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip gently through its built-in spout.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is out.
Golspie: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. 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 staff at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing your car away when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Golspie.
Already run? Stop once it is sensible, then switch off. Golspie sits over 50 miles from the M90; there, take the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Inverness, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Golspie.
Our arrival in Golspie, and what occurs next
The van comes to the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own drive, near Golspie Church Hall, or by the local primary school. The replies determine this work and our price, and so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run. Nobody heads out until you have heard the quote over the phone.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. 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 that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. After the fuel filter is flushed — or renewed, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. Next our engineers fire it up and check it runs smoothly before we leave.
If the motor 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. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Golspie, briefly
Golspie is a small coastal village in the Highland county of Scotland, situated near the Moray Firth at an elevation of around 7 metres. Golspie lies within a short distance of several nearby settlements, including Drummuie, Backies, and Kirkton, and is approximately 35 miles from the city of Inverness. Golspie has a population of around 681 residents, who mostly live in semi-detached housing. Golspie is located a significant distance from major cities, with London being around 472 miles away.
Golspie and Highland: AdBlue drains across the area
Backies and Kirkton are among the towns around Golspie, a coastal village, that the same teams cover, over KW postcodes. Give a postcode that starts KW10 6, and the van gets there quickest.
The vehicle stays put. Anywhere it stands — beside Countess of Sutherland Memorial Fountain, on a lay-by heading to Golspie Community Garden, on a drive — that is where it gets cleared. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Sutherland Swimming Pool Complex.
Golspie people: the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, anywhere in Highland: keep it off then ring 0333 366 0103.