Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Garnqueen
Pause reading a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where the vehicle sits in Garnqueen, is normally all it needs if found before the motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it takes place and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Garnqueen and Greenfoot carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
There is a filler for every tank. Many of cars have a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt visit, week in, week out. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It's in the gap that the slip happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Garnqueen
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Inchneuk Road before work, or in the car park at Brickworx Bar & Brasserie on the way home.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as readily, and once the pour begins, nothing halts it. Glenboig or the heart of Garnqueen: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, at a forecourt around Garnqueen or a driveway out in Annathill. Seconds, no more.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook shows where it lives if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Gartcosh? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere around North Lanarkshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Main Street, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- The two behind a single flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel side stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Finish when that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently using the built-in spout.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Garnqueen?
Short order, then. First: your motor remains unstarted. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so leave it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — BP, Asda or any other — the staff will usually help push your car clear, when you ask. Your own drive in Garnqueen is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. The next exit means the place to leave when you're on the M73, under a mile from Garnqueen. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Garnqueen is smaller work than a run of under 10 miles towards Glasgow, and so tell us.
Our arrival in Garnqueen, and what occurs next
By the local primary school, close to War Memorial or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. What liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those replies decide both work and quote. During the call itself, you hear the quote — ahead of anything else.
Then that tank is emptied and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing washes out unaided, however long it is left. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before we leave, our technicians start it and make sure that it is running properly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our engineers get there, provided your motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Garnqueen, for a moment
Garnqueen is a suburban area situated on the riverside in North Lanarkshire, with a mix of detached housing and local amenities. Garnqueen sits at an elevation of 87 metres, close to the nearby communities of Glenboig and Marnock. Garnqueen is located approximately 7.7 miles from Glasgow, making it a commuter-friendly location. Garnqueen has a population of around 1756 residents, living in predominantly detached homes.
Garnqueen and North Lanarkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Marnock and Marnoch are among the towns around Garnqueen, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over ML postcodes. Give a postcode that starts ML5 2, and our van gets there quickest.
Moving your car isn't necessary. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Glenboig Parish Church, a lay-by on the way to Glenboig Park, a driveway. Awkward to explain, like the back of Glenboig Life Centre? Close to a county line? Checking beats assuming, and so phone.
In short, for Garnqueen drivers
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around North Lanarkshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.