Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St Combs: Why It Happens
Leave your motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in St Combs. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it happens and the ways to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds your motor — yet plenty of newer diesels seen round St Combs and Fiddlers Green carry a second liquid too. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Far less often, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
St Combs: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a drive off High Street before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — but a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: a new car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Charleston or the heart of St Combs: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, at a forecourt around St Combs or a drive over in Crimonmogate. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives when the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — anywhere it is across Aberdeenshire — a routine to use.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Charles Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly using its own spout.
- Close the cap, then look again — making sure your diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Do not go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in St Combs already?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the pump if you're at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the Shell or anywhere else. If you're on your own drive around St Combs, leave it where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction means the place to leave if you're on the M90, over 50 miles from St Combs. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Aberdeen, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across St Combs.
Our arrival in St Combs, and what takes place next
Outside the local primary school, close to St Combs Community Church or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask since those answers set both work and price. Nobody sets off before you have heard the quote by phone.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out unaided. That is why it counts more. After your filter is flushed — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. We don't go until it has been started and is running correctly.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About St Combs and where it is
St Combs is a small coastal village in Aberdeenshire, situated near the towns of Charleston and Inverallochy. St Combs lies at an elevation of 19 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. St Combs is located approximately 35 miles north of Aberdeen, and its coastal setting provides scenic views of the surrounding landscape. St Combs has a population of around 635 residents, who live in a mix of old and new buildings.
AdBlue drains across Aberdeenshire, St Combs included
Throughout AB postcodes, our teams covering St Combs — a coastal village — work the nearby locations too, Cairnbulg and Inverallochy included. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting AB43 8.
Moving your car is not needed. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Inverallochy Castle, a lay-by on the way to Inverallochy Golf Club, a driveway. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Inverallochy and Cairnbulg War Memorial, ring and ask instead of assuming.
St Combs drivers: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Aberdeenshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.