Bargarran: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your engine hasn't turned, it is drained and fully purged where the car sits in Bargarran. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many current diesels on the roads round Bargarran and Rashielee carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Many of cars have a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which filler it needs. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
Bargarran: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Douglas Crescent before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have 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 after it has started. Whether it happens in Erskine or the middle of Bargarran, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Bargarran forecourt or a drive out in West Craigend, spend a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On many vehicles, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Kilpatrick.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Renfrewshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Hamilton Drive, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've located the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five is off limits.
Bargarran: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at Shell, JET or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the car away if asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Bargarran.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Bargarran sits under a mile from the Toll Plaza Interchange; there, take the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Glasgow, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Bargarran.
Bargarran: what happens when our engineers turn up
The van reaches the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near St John Boscos Church, or outside the local primary school. Which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since those answers set the work and quote. You get that price on the phone, before anybody heads out.
The system is then purged thoroughly, once your tank is cleared. 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 here than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, where needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. The engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs properly, all before we go.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Bargarran
Bargarran is a suburban area in Renfrewshire, situated near the coast and approximately 9.5 miles west of Glasgow. Bargarran has a relatively low elevation of 28 metres and is close to nearby places such as Erskine and Erskine Harbour. Bargarran is characterised by its predominantly terraced housing stock, which reflects the area's development as a residential community. Bargarran is also relatively distant from London, at around 352 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Bargarran, and Renfrewshire beyond
North Barr and Erskine Harbour are among the places near Bargarran, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over PA postcodes. Give a postcode that starts PA8 6, and the van arrives fastest.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. Draining takes place right there, whether a driveway, a road by Erskine Parish Church, or a layby towards Rashielee Plantation. Tricky to explain, like the back of Falklands War Memorial? By a border? Asking is better than guessing, so phone.
Bargarran motorists: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, anywhere around Renfrewshire: keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103.