Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Airdrie: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Airdrie, catching it before the engine turns usually leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels around Cairnhill, as well as Airdrie, carry on two liquids; the motor takes only the diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there a spray cleans the fumes.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place both together under one flap. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
Airdrie: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Stirling Street, or on the way home in the car park outside The Broomknowe Bar.
Unfamiliar motors come next, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Gartlea or the heart of Airdrie: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Airdrie forecourt or a drive out in Burnfoot, take a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of cars show what belongs in which inlet right there.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel inlet? In that case check beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from the nearest station's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere across North Lanarkshire, use this routine.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Bank Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Both under a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look again — confirm your diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Leave out step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Airdrie already?
Do not start your engine: that is where the short order of things starts. Keep your ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on by itself starts the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — Shell, Morrisons or any other — the attendants will normally help roll your car clear, if you ask. If you are on your own driveway around Airdrie, leave the car where it sits.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Airdrie lies under 3 miles from the M8; on it, use the first junction. A short hop across Airdrie is a smaller job than a run towards Glasgow, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers get there in Airdrie
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, whether by the local primary school, near Airdrie Arts Centre or at home, our van travels to it. Which fluid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask because those replies set both work and quote. Nobody heads out until you've had our price by phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. Then we start the car and check it runs properly before we go.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run need about half an hour after our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Airdrie and where it is
Airdrie is a town situated on the riverside in North Lanarkshire, with a mix of flat housing and other residential areas, lying about 9.9 miles east of Glasgow. Airdrie sits at an elevation of around 129 metres, near the smaller communities of Gartlea, Rawyards, and Whinhall. Airdrie has a population of approximately 22,227 people, making it a significant urban centre in the region. Airdrie is located about 339.8 miles northwest of London, in the central Scottish lowlands.
AdBlue drains in Airdrie and across North Lanarkshire
Over ML postcodes, the vans covering Airdrie — a riverside town — work the nearby places too, Whinhall and Rawyards among them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting ML6 6.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a road near Airdrie Public Library & Observatory, or a layby towards Central Park. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Airdrie Library, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Airdrie motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout North Lanarkshire.