Adblue Filling Options

Tell

Full Member
Staff member
Moderator
For the 2 litre diesels the manual only reckons you use one of two options

  • locking bottle
  • adblue commercial pump

The slop it in method based on bottles with regular spout or funnel isn't featured. Spills of adblue must be washed off.

Pricewise commercial filler pumps are half the price of Halford bottles etc (slop it in method). Opened bottles of the stuff go off after six months. Dealers doing it for you costs four times the price of the pumps. The small valve bottles which Seat have as an option are much more expensive so you wouldn't do that and you need a number of bottles. You need to put in 5 litres to register, like four. The valve bottles hold 1.5 litres so are expensive, circa £36 each. Some people then cut the bottle up and use with the cheaper big bottles, still double the price of the commercial pumps.

There is an argument that if living in the sticks you might be reduced to bottles if you can't get to pumps although you might pass one in the 1,500 mile range in normal travels.. . There are filler pipes with valves you can buy to connect to these bottles which largely date to when the filler point was in the boot of diesel cars. That's more expense.

Commercial adblue lorry filler pumps can be found on

https://www.findadblue.com/

Select Air1 or Hem.

Also there is a location app under Air1 least for Android.

The Ateca tank takes 11 litres, will warn at 1,500 miles range to empty and stop the engine from starting at 0 miles. A full tank should give you 5,500 miles from new. The range from the next fillup is how much you brim it. The manual says don't, again due to spills, when filling via an Adblue pump stop when the pump stops. The depth of the nozzle in the tank on refill gave me 5,000 miles range without attempting to brim it. Adblue is filled next to the diesel cap in the Ateca just under the flap.

Example of refilling via an Adblue pump is here

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=goqtO93ueD8

Magnets ?. Mentioned in the video it's used on commercial lorries around the nozzle which increase the flow to 40 litres a minute. Had no problem with a Total pump, the flow was fine. Not too quick, not too slow.

UK prices for Adblue at the pumps is circa 70p a litre. Fill up till the pump stops, cap on, pay. Press the start button without pressing the brake too start the engine. Leave for 30 seconds on ignition only. Adblue measure should now be reset. Job done for another 4,000 or so miles for about £6 with 1,500 miles spare :). Adblue costs are miniscule. In fact my consumption was originally indicated to a range of 5,500 but in reality at the point of fill up it would have been 6,500 miles to empty.

The process for filling up at this lorry pump which was at the German / Luxembourg border was to pull up at the pump, go across to the central desk, they took the credit / debit card swipe against the pump, go back and fill, return again and pay. Given it was a Sunday and lorries lay up on that day in the Dutchy there wasn't a lot of pressure on the lorry pumps. I guess a similar process applies elsewhere.
 
Last edited:

baba_metca

Active Member
May 4, 2016
32
0
Interesting price. Here in Bulgaria a 10L bottle costs 13,5GBP /current exchange rate/.This is a bottle that is from the main Seat/VW dealer and branded as official VW/Seat/Skoda/Audi AddBlue liquid. You will need a special tool that costs around 8GBP. The tool has two caps and hoses, just screw on the bottle and then on the filler cap. It will fit every VAG vehicle,not sure about others. The tool needs to be rinsed off with regular water after use.

That is it. Here in Bulgaria all the major filling stations have lorry pumps and sell bottled AddBlue too. The pumps are cheaper, but as there are atleast 2 ISO standarts, you will have to ask at every station what is the addblue in the pump. Or you could get a bottled AddBlue from the same fuel stations. Interesting fact is that the bottled AddBlue in 10L bottles is atleast 2,5GBP more expensive then those from Seat Dealers. There are some 20l bottles, but I have not checked their prices. Seat dealers charge 8 pounds for a 10L refill + the price of the bottle(13,5GBP).

Another interestig fact. My father drives a 2013 Merc E-class 3,5L V6. On his yearly maintanence they refill the AddBlue. I do not know the cost of refilling as they have a total work hours of the service in the invoice (2.5 man hours for changing the oil, all filters and fillilng AddBlue) but the Cost of AddBlue used is 0,54GBP/L. And they also fill exactly the amount needed to fill up the entire tank. They use some kind of pump. This is in the official MB and Seat/VW Service centers and all prices include VAT(in Bulgaria VAT is 20% on all Items).
 

Tell

Full Member
Staff member
Moderator
I think there is only one Adblue standard but different registered names for it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_exhaust_fluid

The AU32 which is Adblue

"The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) registered the trademark AdBlue for AUS 32."

I think you might have Arla32 in mind which is the same stuff. DEF is another name.

https://www.jaguar.co.uk/owners/def-adblue.html

http://en.greenchem-adblue.com/trucks-busses/adblue-information

I'm working on the basis that if the pump says Adblue it's Adblue. It was kind of worrying that it was going to start up ok but fine. This was part that I washed the filler area down after the cap went on and did wonder how good the cap fitted although the other 68 percent is mineral water.

I think the sale of bottles of the stuff is riding on the coat tails of people believing there is a difference. I looked at getting the VW pipe connections and bottle. You need gravity to get it in, messy, and opened bottles go off after six months as well as it being twice as expensive than at the lorry pumps excluding the fitting. Dealers charge circa £30 - £40 to fill up in the UK. My fill up cost me £5-76 and nothing left in a bottle to go off.

Basically the price ratio are one via a pump, twice as much via bottles with normal cap, four times at a dealer. I didnt bother working out the most expensive way with the fancy small bottles with the valve that people turn into funnels slicing the bottle up.
 
Last edited: