Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Little Dunkeld
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Little Dunkeld. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of current diesels on the roads about Little Dunkeld and Kingswood carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there a spray cleans the fumes.
There's a filler for each tank. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place both side by side behind one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Little Dunkeld: how it takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Church Road, or heading home in the car park at Birnam Inn.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: an unfamiliar car.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Little Dunkeld or out in Birnam.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Butterstone or a forecourt around Little Dunkeld, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of cars show which belongs in which inlet just there.
- The handbook says where it lives when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with 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 outside Dunkeld & Birnam.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — wherever it is in Perth and Kinross — a routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Perth Road, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Leave out stage five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Little Dunkeld?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
The staff at Pace, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will usually help pushing the car away if you ask. Your own drive in Little Dunkeld is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M90, under 15 miles from Little Dunkeld, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Perth, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Little Dunkeld.
What occurs when our technicians get there in Little Dunkeld
Our van comes to the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, near Little Dunkeld Church, or by the local primary school. The replies determine the work and the price, so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Then the tank is drained and the system flushed thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or replaced as needed. The engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs smoothly, all before we leave.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Little Dunkeld itself
Little Dunkeld is a village situated on the banks of the River Tay in Perth and Kinross, with a mix of detached housing and scenic riverside views. Little Dunkeld sits at an elevation of 55 metres, approximately 12.7 miles north of Perth, and is located near the villages of Birnam and Dunkeld. Little Dunkeld has a population of around 718 residents, who enjoy the tranquil atmosphere of the village and its surrounding countryside.
AdBlue drains across Perth and Kinross, Little Dunkeld included
Little Dunkeld is a village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Dunkeld and Inver among them, across the PH postcode area. Give a postcode that starts PH8 0, and the van arrives quickest.
Shifting the car is not needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Stell Park, a side street close to War Memorial: our technicians drain it where it is. Awkward to explain, like the back of Niel Gow? Close to a border? Checking beats assuming, and so phone.
The short version for Little Dunkeld people
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Perth and Kinross, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.