Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ullapool: Why It Occurs
Keep the engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Ullapool. Reading before the event? Then what follows explains why it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels near Ullapool and Loggie carry, with diesel for the motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which filler it needs. That gap is where the slip lives.
Ullapool: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Shore Street, or on the way home in the car park outside Ferry Boat Inn.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: a strange vehicle.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Ullapool or out in Morefield.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Rhue or a forecourt around Ullapool, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is if the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or fleet car — at the nearest station's car park, perhaps — not when the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Wherever in Highland the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Garve Road.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — once you have found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Stop when that tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly through its built-in spout.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Ullapool?
Don't start the engine: that's how the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the JET or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. On your own drive in Ullapool? Then the car remains put.
Already started? Stop once it is sensible, then switch off. Leave the M90 — over 50 miles out of Ullapool — at the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Ullapool is smaller work than a run of under 50 miles towards Inverness, so say.
Our arrival around Ullapool, and what occurs next
By the local primary school, close to Ullapool War Memorial or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since the replies determine this work and our price. You get that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out unaided. That is why it counts more. A test is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and check that it is running correctly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine hasn't run take about half an hour after our technicians arrive. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Ullapool and where it is
Ullapool is a small coastal village in the Highland county of Scotland, situated on the shores of Loch Broom at an elevation of around 9 metres. Ullapool sits in a scenic location, surrounded by hills and woodland, and is close to nearby places such as Morefield and Braes of Ullapool. Ullapool has a population of approximately 729 people, living in predominantly detached housing. Ullapool is located about 44 miles northwest of Inverness, the nearest city.
AdBlue drains round Ullapool, and Highland beyond
Braes of Ullapool and Blarnalearoch are among the places around Ullapool, a coastal village, that the same vans cover, over IV postcodes. Give a postcode that starts IV26 2, and our van arrives quickest.
The car doesn't need to shift. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Dylan Adam McElhinney Memorial, a lay-by on the way to Ullapool Golf Club, a drive. Guessing won't help at the back of Ullapool Library, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
The short version for Ullapool drivers
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, wherever around Highland: switch it off then ring 0333 366 0103.