Wick: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep the engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Wick, finding it before your engine runs usually means draining and a full flush on the spot. Here in advance? Then what follows explains why it comes about and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels around Gaultiquoy, like those in Wick, run on two fluids; your engine takes only your diesel. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
There is a filler for each tank. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place both together behind one flap. Diesel goes in on every filling station visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
Wick: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a driveway off High Street before work, or in the car park outside Harpers on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: an unfamiliar car.
No part halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Willowbank or the middle of Wick: it takes the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Lochshell or a forecourt in Wick, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — many motors mark which goes in each filler just there.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Check with whoever drove the car last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — wherever you are in Highland — a simple routine to follow.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and not rushed beside A99 on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Wick?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the JET or the Tesco, ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive in Wick, leave it where it is.
Already run? Stop when it's sensible, then turn off. The next junction is where to leave when you're on the M90, over 50 miles from Wick. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Inverness, over 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Wick.
Wick: what takes place when our technicians arrive
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, near Seaforth Highlanders War Memorial or on your own drive. What fluid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because the answers decide the work and price. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Once the filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel is added, and finally the car is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take about half an hour once we arrive. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Wick, briefly
Wick is a coastal town in the Highland council area of Scotland, situated on the north-eastern coast at a low elevation of around 10 metres. Wick sits near several smaller communities, including Willowbank, Milton, and Broadhaven, and is located approximately 78 miles from Inverness. Wick has a population of around 6419 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Wick is also relatively distant from major cities like London, being around 493 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Highland, Wick included
Wick is a coastal town, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Milton and Broadhaven among them, across the KW postcode area. Quickest of all: quote a KW1 4 postcode for our van.
Shifting the vehicle isn't necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Academy Braes, a side street near Dunbar Memorial: our engineers drain the car where it is. Awkward to explain, like the back of Old St Fergus Church? Close to a county line? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
The short version for Wick motorists
First, the cap; then, the tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, anywhere in Highland: switch it off then call 0333 366 0103.