AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Rattray: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Keep the engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Rattray, catching it before the motor turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the motor — yet many newer diesels seen about Rattray and Rosemount carry a second fluid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Rattray
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off Parkhill Road before work, or in the car park at The Balmoral on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as readily, and once the tip begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Rattray or out in Westfields of Rattray.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Muirton of Ardblair or a forecourt around Rattray.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many motors show what goes in which inlet just there.
- The handbook says which it is when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Dunkeld & Birnam? Ask whoever drove it last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere around Perth and Kinross the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Kirkton Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Skip stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Rattray?
Brief order, then. First: the motor remains unstarted. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, just where fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — Tesco, JET or any other — the attendants will normally help push the vehicle away, when you ask. If you are on your own drive in Rattray, leave the car where it sits.
When the motor has been run already, stop somewhere safe and turn the vehicle off. The next junction means where to leave if you're on the M90, under 15 miles from Rattray. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Perth, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Rattray.
When our engineers turn up in Rattray, what happens?
Outside the local primary school, close to Rattray Church or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. No one sets off before you've had our quote over the phone.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing washes away unaided, no matter how long it is left. Filter cleaned or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; then a test of your car. The engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before our technicians leave.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Rattray and where it is
Rattray is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Perth and Kinross, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 1804 residents. Rattray lies close to the nearby towns of Blairgowrie and Westfields of Rattray, and is approximately 14.6 miles from Perth. Rattray's elevation is around 83 metres above sea level, and it is located in a scenic area near the Scottish countryside. Rattray is also relatively distant from major cities like London, being around 374.6 miles away.
Rattray and Perth and Kinross: AdBlue drains across the area
Blairgowrie and Blairgowrie and Rattray are among the places around Rattray, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over PH postcodes. Give a postcode beginning PH10 7, and our van arrives quickest.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. Draining happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a street near Plash Mill, or a layby on the way to Loon Braes. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Meikle Mill.
For Rattray drivers, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever around Perth and Kinross: keep the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.