AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lewiston: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where your vehicle stands in Lewiston, is usually what it takes when found before the motor runs. Here in advance? Then the rest covers how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many newer diesels in Easter Milton, like those in Lewiston, run on two fluids; the motor takes only your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Lewiston
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off A82, or at Brewery Bar on the way home that evening.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
Nothing stops the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's seconds, whether out in Drumnadrochit or right in the centre of Lewiston.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Check these first, at a forecourt around Lewiston or a drive out in Milton. Seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you collect a hire car or fleet car — at Beauly's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Highland that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Bunloit Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located your filler and read it.
- The two behind a single flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel side stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Lewiston already?
Do not start your engine: that's how the short order of things starts. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Esso, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car clear if you ask. Your own driveway around Lewiston is where it should stay.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M90, over 50 miles from Lewiston, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Lewiston is smaller a job than a run of under 15 miles to Inverness, and so tell us.
Our arrival in Lewiston, and what takes place next
Our van comes to the car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near Glenurquhart Centre, or outside the local primary school. What fluid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since those replies set both work and quote. No one sets off until you have had our quote over the phone.
Then your tank is emptied and your system flushed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and none of that clears out unaided, however long it is left. A test is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. After that our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs properly before leaving.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Lewiston, briefly
Lewiston is a small village situated on the riverside in the Scottish Highlands, with a population of around 712 people. Lewiston is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is located near the city of Inverness, approximately 14 miles away. Lewiston sits at an elevation of 35 metres, close to nearby places such as Drumnadrochit and Kilmichael. Lewiston is also relatively distant from major cities like London, being around 438 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Highland, Lewiston included
Over IV postcodes, the teams covering Lewiston — a village — work the nearby places too, Strone and Kilmichael included. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting IV63 6.
No need to move the car. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Urquhart & Glenmoriston Parish Church, a lay-by on the way to Urquhart Bay Wood, a drive. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Bradley Martin Memorial.
For Lewiston motorists, the short version
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Highland.