AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upper Drummond: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
Keep the engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, if your motor hasn't turned, it's drained and thoroughly flushed where the vehicle sits around Upper Drummond. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels around Upper Drummond and Ballifeary run, with diesel for your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both together behind one flap. Diesel gets filled on every filling station call-out, again and again. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Upper Drummond
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Pine Drive, perhaps at Dows on the way home after work.
New-to-you vehicles come second, as well. Rentals, new motors and company cars put their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing stops the tip 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 Hilton or the middle of Upper Drummond, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Haugh or a forecourt around Upper Drummond, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you collect a hire car or company car — from Inverness's car park, perhaps — not when the warning comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere across Highland, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Oak Avenue, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Upper Drummond?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Asda or the Shell, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Your own driveway around Upper Drummond is where it stays.
Already run? Pull over once it's sensible, then switch off. Come off the M90 — over 50 miles out of Upper Drummond — at the first junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Inverness, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Upper Drummond.
What takes place when we get there in Upper Drummond
Our van reaches the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Hilton Community Centre, or outside the local primary school. Our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, since the replies settle this work and the quote. You hear that price by phone, before anybody heads out.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of the car. Then our engineers start the car and make sure it runs correctly before we leave.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Upper Drummond and where it is
Upper Drummond is a suburban area located on the coast of the Moray Firth, near the city of Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. Upper Drummond sits at an elevation of 36 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Upper Drummond is close to nearby places such as Hilton, Lower Drummond, and Lochardil, and is situated approximately 1.3 miles from Inverness.
Upper Drummond and Highland: AdBlue drains across the area
As a residential suburb, Upper Drummond has the same vans as surrounding areas — Lower Drummond, Lochardil — right through IV postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quote a postcode beginning IV2 4, and the van gets there fastest.
Shifting your car is not necessary. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Hilton Parish Church, a lay-by on the way to Castle Heather Park, a drive. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Greyfriars.
In short, for Upper Drummond drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere around Highland.