AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Willowbank: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Pause here a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Willowbank. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
No single liquid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels around Willowbank and Staxigoe run, with diesel for the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place the two together behind one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Willowbank: how it takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and running dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Leishman Avenue, or outside Crown Bar on the way home after work.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Third, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and once the pour begins, nothing halts it. It takes seconds, be it in Wick or bang in the centre of Willowbank.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Milton or a forecourt around Willowbank.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives when the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Wick.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever in Highland, follow this routine.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and never rushed by Willowbank at the roadside.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look once more — confirm the diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five altogether.
Willowbank: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short list, then. Top of it: your motor remains unstarted. Don't switch the ignition on; on many 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 the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at JET, Tesco or another forecourt will usually help to push your car away when you ask. On your own drive in Willowbank? So your car remains put.
Already run? Pull over when it's sensible, then turn off. Leave the M90 — over 50 miles out of Willowbank — at the next exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Willowbank makes a smaller job than heading over 50 miles to Inverness — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Willowbank, and what takes place next
Wherever your car has stopped, be it by the local primary school, near Old Fog Cannon or at home, the van comes to it. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, because those answers settle the work and the price. Nobody heads out until you have had the quote over the phone.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, once your tank is cleared. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out unaided. Hence it matters more. After the filter has been flushed — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel is added, and finally your car gets tested. We don't go until it has been started and is running properly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need about half an hour after our engineers arrive. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Willowbank
Willowbank is a coastal suburban area in the Highland county of Scotland, situated at an elevation of 25 metres. Willowbank lies near the towns of Wick and Broadhaven, and is also close to the village of Papigoe. Willowbank has a population of approximately 2375 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Willowbank is located 78.7 miles from Inverness, the nearest city.
AdBlue drains across Highland, Willowbank included
As a residential suburb, Willowbank shares its vans nearby places — Broadhaven, Papigoe — all the way across KW postcodes and the wider area around them. Quote a postcode beginning KW1 4, and our van gets there quickest.
There's no need to move the vehicle. Wherever it sits — near Caithness SeaCoast tours, in a layby en route to Academy Braes, at home — that is where it is cleared. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of L.S. Lowry Commemorative Tablet, ring and ask instead of assuming.
In short, for Willowbank motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the car switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Highland.