AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tarland: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done right where your car stands in Tarland, is usually all it needs if caught before your motor runs. Reading in advance? Then the rest explains how it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that's how many modern diesels near Tarland and Logie Coldstone carry, with diesel for your engine. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
There is a filler for every tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. 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. The mistake lives in that gap.
Tarland: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Mill Road before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
No part stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Tarland or out in Coull.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Migvie or a forecourt in Tarland.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- On plenty of motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to your diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you collect a hire car or fleet car — at the nearest station's car park, say — rather than once the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — wherever it is around Aberdeenshire — a routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Duncan Road.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Finish when your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to step five.
Tarland: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Do not start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Gulf, the another forecourt nearby or somewhere else. At home around Tarland? So your car stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. The next junction means the place to come off when you're on the M90, over 50 miles from Tarland. A short hop across Tarland is a smaller job than a run towards Aberdeen, under 50 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Tarland, and what takes place next
Outside the local primary school, near Tarland War Memorial or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. What fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask since those replies set the work and price. Nobody sets off before you've had our quote by phone.
Then the tank is emptied and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. After that our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before leaving.
Unrun vehicles mostly need a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Tarland itself
Tarland is a small village in Aberdeenshire, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of around 148 metres. Tarland lies approximately 28 miles west of Aberdeen and is surrounded by nearby places such as Coull, Ordie, and Coynach. Tarland has a population of around 633 people and features predominantly semi-detached housing. Tarland is located in a rural area, about 404 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains around Tarland and across Aberdeenshire
Being a village, Tarland shares its vans nearby areas — Ordie, Coynach — all the way through AB postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quickest of all: quote a AB34 4 postcode to our van.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Tarland Show Ground, a side street close to MacRobert Memorial Hall: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Tricky to explain, like the back of Francis Donaldson of Boig Memorial Fountain? Close to a county line? Asking is better than guessing, so ring.
For Tarland drivers, the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across Aberdeenshire.