Barrwood: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep the motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Barrwood, catching it before your motor runs normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the why it happens and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — yet many newer diesels seen around Barrwood and Auchinstarry carry another fluid as well. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
There's a filler for each tank. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
Barrwood: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Argyll Place, or heading home in the car park at the pub in the village.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second thing: a new car.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Barrwood or out in South Barrwood.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Balmalloch or a forecourt in Barrwood, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Croy? Ask the person who drove it last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere in North Lanarkshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Courthill Crescent, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Stop once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently through the built-in spout.
- Close the cap, and look once more — making sure the diesel cap remained closed the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Find during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Stage five is off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Barrwood?
Short list, then. Top of that: your engine remains unstarted. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Tesco, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Barrwood.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. On the M80, under 3 miles from Barrwood, that means the next exit. A short hop across Barrwood is a smaller job than a run towards Glasgow, under 15 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
What takes place when our technicians get there around Barrwood
Our van comes to the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near St Patrick's Catholic Church, or by the local primary school. Our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because those replies settle the work and our price. Nobody sets off until you've heard the quote by phone.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after the tank is drained. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel is added, and finally the vehicle gets tested. Next our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs properly before leaving.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run take roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Barrwood, briefly
Barrwood is a suburban area situated on the riverside in North Lanarkshire, with a relatively low elevation of 75 metres. Barrwood lies approximately 10.5 miles from Glasgow and is part of the wider Glasgow urban area. Barrwood has a mix of residential properties, with flats being the predominant type of housing. Barrwood is close to nearby places such as South Barrwood, North Barrwood, and Kilsyth.
AdBlue drains across North Lanarkshire, Barrwood included
Being a residential suburb, Barrwood has the same vans as surrounding areas — North Barrwood, Kilsyth — all the way across G postcodes and the wider area around them. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting G65 0.
No need to move the vehicle. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Burngreen Park, a side street close to Kilsyth Community Church: our engineers drain the vehicle where it stands. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Kilsyth War Memorial.
Barrwood drivers: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave it switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout North Lanarkshire.