Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Grange Gardens: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where the vehicle stands around Grange Gardens, is normally all it takes if found before the engine runs. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels around Kirktown, like those in Grange Gardens, run on two liquids; your engine takes only the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at each filling station call-out, week in, week out. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think which filler it needs. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Grange Gardens: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Cairntrodlie, or heading home in the car park at Grange Inn.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and once the pour begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Grange Gardens or out in Clerkhill.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Peterhead or a forecourt around Grange Gardens, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Aberdeenshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of West Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look once more — confirm the diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the car.
Discover at the second or third step that the bottle went in the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Step five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Grange Gardens?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — Esso, Morrisons or another — the staff will normally help roll the car clear, when you ask. At home around Grange Gardens? So the car stays where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Grange Gardens sits over 50 miles from the M90; on it, use the first exit. Distance counts — a short hop across Grange Gardens is a smaller job than driving under 50 miles to Aberdeen — so say about how far it went.
When our engineers arrive in Grange Gardens, what occurs?
By the local primary school, near c or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask since the answers set both work and price. The quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, after the tank is drained. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. That is why it counts more. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Then our technicians start the engine and check it runs properly before we leave.
If the engine has not run, most 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 after dark. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It is worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Grange Gardens, briefly
Grange Gardens is a coastal suburban area in Aberdeenshire, situated near the towns of Clerkhill and Blackhouse. Grange Gardens lies at an elevation of 19 metres, within commuting distance of Aberdeen, which is 27 miles away. Grange Gardens is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing, which accommodates a population of around 5204 residents.
AdBlue drains around Grange Gardens and across Aberdeenshire
Grange Gardens is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Blackhouse and Middle Grange among them, across the AB postcode area. A postcode starting AB42 2 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains where it is. We drain it where it is — a side street near WW2 War Memorial, a lay-by on the way to West Links, a driveway. Assuming won't help behind WW1 War Memorial, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
For Grange Gardens drivers, the short version
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Aberdeenshire.