Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ferniegair
Pause reading a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where the car stands around Ferniegair, is normally what it takes when caught before your engine runs. Here in advance? In that case the rest covers how it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels around Silvertonhill, like those in Ferniegair, carry on two fluids; your motor gets just the diesel. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where a spray treats the gas.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at every filling station call-out, again and again. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The mistake lives in that gap.
Ferniegair: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off O'Donnell Gardens before work, or in the car park at Chatelherault Inn heading home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: an unfamiliar car.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, keeps on. It takes seconds, be it out in Allanton or right in the centre of Ferniegair.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Hamilton or a forecourt in Ferniegair.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Chatelherault? Ask the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in South Lanarkshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Isabella Gardens, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Ferniegair?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the JET or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Ferniegair.
Already run? Pull over when it's safe, then switch off. Leave the M74 — under a mile out of Ferniegair — at the next junction. A short hop across Ferniegair 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 we arrive around Ferniegair
Anywhere the car has stopped, be it outside the local primary school, near War Memorial or at home, our van travels to it. The replies settle the work and the quote, and so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. On the phone call itself, you hear the price — ahead of dispatch.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once the filter is flushed — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. Next our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs properly before we go.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine has not run need roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Ferniegair itself
Ferniegair is a village situated on the riverside in South Lanarkshire, with a relatively low elevation of 59 metres. Ferniegair lies near several smaller communities, including Allanton and Barncluith, and is within commuting distance of Glasgow, which is 11 miles away. Ferniegair has a population of around 1358 people, predominantly living in detached housing.
AdBlue drains across South Lanarkshire, Ferniegair included
Being a village, Ferniegair has the same vans as surrounding areas — Barncluith, Knowetop — right through ML postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting ML3 7 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car doesn't need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Hamilton Golf Club, a side street close to Normandy Veterans Association Memorial: our engineers drain it where it sits. Tricky to explain, like the back of Portrait Bench? By a county line? Asking is better than guessing, so phone.
The short version for Ferniegair drivers
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, wherever across South Lanarkshire: switch it off then ring 0333 366 0103.