Coppermine: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Coppermine. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it happens and the ways to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Not one fluid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels near Coppermine and Cardwell Bay carry, with diesel for the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled on each filling station call-out, week in, week out. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which cap it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Coppermine?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off George Road, or at Montieth's on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: a new vehicle.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and after the pour starts, nothing stops it. Midton or the heart of Coppermine: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt in Coppermine or a driveway out in Trumpethill. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On many vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Gourock? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Inverclyde that is.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Drumshantie Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour slowly through the own spout.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Coppermine already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The staff at BP, Tesco or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the car clear when asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Coppermine.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M8, under 15 miles from Coppermine, that means the next junction. A short hop across Coppermine is a smaller job than a run towards Glasgow, under 25 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians turn up in Coppermine, what occurs?
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to Struthers Memorial Church or on your own drive. Those replies determine the work and the price, so our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. You hear that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
The fuel system is then rinsed 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 that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our engineers arrive, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. No money upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Coppermine, briefly
Coppermine is a coastal suburban area in Inverclyde, situated near the cities of Glasgow and Greenock. Coppermine sits at an elevation of 55 metres, overlooking the Firth of Clyde, and is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing. Coppermine is located near other suburban areas such as Midton, Coves, and Ashton, and is approximately 23 miles west of Glasgow.
Coppermine and Inverclyde: AdBlue drains across the area
Coppermine is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Coves and Ashton among them, across the PA postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting PA19 1.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Gourock Park, a side street near Tower Hill: our engineers drain the vehicle where it is. Tricky to pin down, like the back of St. Andrew's Parish Church? Close to a county line? Checking is better than assuming, and so ring.
Coppermine drivers: the short version
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Inverclyde, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.