How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Braedale
Keep your motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when your motor hasn't turned, it is drained and thoroughly rinsed where your vehicle sits in Braedale. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it occurs and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of modern diesels seen about Braedale and Forgewood hold another liquid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
Braedale: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Braedale Avenue, or heading home in the car park outside The Brass Button.
Unfamiliar motors come second, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Braedale or out in North Motherwell.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Braedale forecourt or a driveway over in Hamilton, take a couple of seconds over these before any is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many vehicles show what belongs in each filler right there.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Airbles.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across North Lanarkshire that is.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Neilsland Drive.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish when your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour slowly through its built-in spout.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
Braedale: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: your motor remains off. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
At a forecourt — JET, Gulf or any other — the staff will usually help push the car clear, if you ask. If you are on your own driveway around Braedale, leave it where it stands.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Braedale sits under a mile from the M74; there, use the next junction. A short hop across Braedale is a smaller job than a run towards Glasgow, under 15 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Braedale: what occurs when we get there
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to Strathclyde Park Sports centre or on your own drive. What fluid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since the answers decide the work and quote. The quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. After your filter is flushed — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers head off.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Braedale
Braedale is a suburban area situated on the riverside in North Lanarkshire, with an elevation of around 45 metres. Braedale lies approximately 10 miles east of Glasgow and is part of the larger Motherwell area, which includes nearby North Motherwell and Knowetop. Braedale has a population of around 4326 people and predominantly features semi-detached housing. Braedale is located near the town of Motherwell, with Glasgow being the nearest major city.
AdBlue drains across North Lanarkshire, Braedale included
Motherwell and Knowetop are among the towns around Braedale, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over ML postcodes. Give a postcode beginning ML1 3, and the van arrives quickest.
The vehicle remains where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Duchess of Hamilton Park, a side street close to Scottish Rowing Centre: we drain it where it sits. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Piper Alpha Memorial? By a border? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
For Braedale drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep it switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across North Lanarkshire.