Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ashgill: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done right where the car sits around Ashgill, is usually all it takes if caught before the engine runs. Here before the event? Then the rest explains how it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many newer diesels in Rosebank, as well as Ashgill, carry on two liquids; your motor gets just your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
There's a filler on every tank. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what cap it needs. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Ashgill?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a drive off Bogside Road before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, keeps on. Whether it occurs in Dalserf or the middle of Ashgill, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Hareleeshill or a forecourt around Ashgill, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there saying 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 when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Larkhall's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across South Lanarkshire that is.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Whinknowe.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Ashgill?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. Leave your ignition off too, because on many diesels it by itself starts your fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the Asda, ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Ashgill.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M74 — under a mile out of Ashgill — at the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Glasgow, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Ashgill.
What takes place when our technicians turn up around Ashgill
Wherever the car has stopped, be it outside the local primary school, beside War Memorial or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three answers — what liquid, which amount, and whether it has run — so we ask. That price is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, once your tank is cleared. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out by itself. Hence it matters more. Once the fuel filter is cleaned — or renewed, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then the car gets tested. Before leaving, our technicians start the car and check that it is running correctly.
Unrun cars mostly need a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Ashgill
Ashgill is a village in South Lanarkshire, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 122 metres. Ashgill lies approximately 15 miles southeast of Glasgow and is surrounded by nearby places such as Dalserf, Shawsburn, and Swinhill. Ashgill has a population of around 1051 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
AdBlue drains across South Lanarkshire, Ashgill included
Shawsburn and Swinhill are among the places around Ashgill, a village, that the same teams cover, throughout ML postcodes. Quickest of all: give a ML9 3 postcode to our van.
There's no need to shift the car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Clyde Valley Woodlands National Nature Reserve, a side street near Dalserf Parish Church: we drain it where it sits. Assuming won't help behind Hareleeshill Sports Barn, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
The short version for Ashgill motorists
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across South Lanarkshire.