How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Portgordon
Stop here for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. In Portgordon, finding it before your engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Not one fluid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels near Portgordon and Buckpool run, with diesel feeding the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler for each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt visit, again and again. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally 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.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Portgordon
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Gordon Square, perhaps outside the pub in the village on the way home that evening.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
Nothing halts the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Portgordon or out in Gollachy.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Lower Auchenreath or a forecourt around Portgordon, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Keith, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever you are across Moray — a simple routine to follow.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and not rushed by Hope Street at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The two behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel side is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check again — making sure your diesel filler stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Portgordon already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Tesco or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive in Portgordon, leave the car where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M90, over 50 miles from Portgordon, that means the next junction. Distance matters — a short hop across Portgordon is a smaller job than heading under 50 miles to Inverness — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Portgordon, and what takes place next
Outside the local primary school, close to Portgordon Community Trust or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, since those answers decide this work and our price. Nobody sets off until you've heard our quote over the phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. The filter flushed or, if it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of the car. Then our technicians start the car and confirm it runs smoothly before we go.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine hasn't run take about half an hour once our engineers are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Portgordon
Portgordon is a small coastal village in Moray, situated on the shores of the Moray Firth at a low elevation of around 6 metres. Portgordon has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the village. Portgordon is located near other small settlements such as Gollachy and Porttannachy, and is within commuting distance of the city of Inverness.
Portgordon and Moray: AdBlue drains across the area
Portgordon is a coastal village, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Porttannachy and Enzie among them, across the AB postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a AB56 5 postcode for the van.
Your car stays put. Wherever it sits — beside Portgordon War Memorial, in a layby en route to Slackhead Wood, at home — that's where it gets emptied. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Portgordon Village Hall.
Portgordon drivers: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Moray, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.