How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tain
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. In Tain, finding it before the engine turns normally leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it occurs and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads round Tain and Crofts of Kingscauseway carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
There's a filler for every tank. Many of cars have a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each filling station visit, again and again. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what filler to use. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Tain: how it occurs
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Bank Street, or outside The Star Inn on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: a new car.
No part halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Knockbreck or the middle of Tain, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Tain forecourt or a driveway over in Quarryhill, take a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask whoever drove it last before you set off, rather than when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere around Highland, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of High Street.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Tain already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Tesco, the Asda or anywhere else. If you're on your own drive around Tain, leave it where it stands.
When the engine has been run already, pull over somewhere safe then turn the vehicle off. The next exit means where to come off when you are on the M90, over 50 miles from Tain. About how far did it go? Hopping across Tain is less a job than a run of under 25 miles towards Inverness, so tell us.
When our technicians get there in Tain, what occurs?
Our van reaches the car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Kenneth Murray Monument, or by the local primary school. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — what fluid, what amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. During the phone call itself, you hear the price — ahead of anything else.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. That is why it counts more. After your filter is flushed — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel is added, and then your vehicle gets tested. Then we fire it up and check it runs correctly before we leave.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Tain and where it is
Tain is a coastal town in the Highland county of Scotland, situated on the southern shore of the Dornoch Firth at an elevation of 26 metres. Tain lies approximately 23 miles north of Inverness and is surrounded by nearby places such as Knockbreck, Morangie, and Hilton. Tain has a population of around 3543 people and predominantly features semi-detached housing. Tain is located 462 miles northwest of London, making it a relatively remote town in the Scottish Highlands.
AdBlue drains in Tain and across Highland
Being a coastal town, Tain has the same vans as nearby places — Morangie, Hilton — right across IV postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quickest of all: quote a IV19 1 postcode for the van.
Shifting the car is not necessary. Draining happens right there, be it a drive, a street near Browns Gallery, or a lay-by towards Rose Garden. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of WWI Centernary Memorial.
In short, for Tain people
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Highland.