How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dundyvan
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, leave the ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done right where your vehicle stands around Dundyvan, is normally all it takes if caught before the motor runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads around Dundyvan and Kirkshaw carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both together behind one flap. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think which filler it needs. It's in that gap that the slip happens.
Dundyvan: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and running out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Dundyvan Road, or outside Clock Bar on the way home after work.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, carries on. Whether it occurs in Langloan or the middle of Dundyvan, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Old Monkland or a forecourt in Dundyvan, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Whifflet, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across North Lanarkshire that is.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and not rushed beside Dundyvan Way at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently through its built-in spout.
- Close the cap, then look once more — making sure your diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. After that, start the car.
Discover at the second or third step that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Stage five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Dundyvan already?
Don't start the engine: that is how the short order of things starts. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Asda or the Esso, ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Dundyvan.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Dundyvan lies under 3 miles from the M8; there, use the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Glasgow, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Dundyvan.
When we arrive around Dundyvan, what occurs?
The van comes to the car wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside Dundyvan Church, or outside the local primary school. Which liquid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because the replies set the work and quote. During the call itself, you are told our quote — before anything else.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we go, our engineers start it and make sure that it is running correctly.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Dundyvan
Dundyvan is a suburban area situated on the riverside in North Lanarkshire, with a relatively low elevation of 79 metres. Dundyvan lies close to the nearby settlements of Langloan and Coatbridge, and is approximately 8 miles from Glasgow. Dundyvan is characterised by its predominantly flat-type housing, which is typical of many suburban areas in the region. Dundyvan is also relatively distant from London, at around 340 miles away.
AdBlue drains round Dundyvan, and North Lanarkshire beyond
Barrowfield and Coatbridge are among the places near Dundyvan, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout ML postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a ML5 4 postcode for our van.
Shifting the car is not needed. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Cecil Park, a side street near Coatbridge Outdoor Sports Centre: our engineers drain it where it sits. Guessing doesn't help at the back of The Time Capsule Coatbridge, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
For Dundyvan motorists, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout North Lanarkshire.