Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hareleeshill: Why It Happens
Stop reading for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done right where the car sits in Hareleeshill, is normally all it needs when caught before your engine runs. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it occurs and the how to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around Hareleeshill and Strutherhill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Many of vehicles share a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Hareleeshill?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Morris Street, or heading home in the car park at The Music room.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: a new vehicle.
No part stops the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Shawsburn or the middle of Hareleeshill, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Birkenshaw or a forecourt in Hareleeshill.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many motors show which belongs in which inlet just there.
- The handbook shows where it is if the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Larkhall? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — wherever you are around South Lanarkshire — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Howard Street, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you have found the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Skip step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hareleeshill?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Shell, the Asda or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Hareleeshill.
Where the motor has run already, stop safely then turn the car off. Hareleeshill lies under a mile from the M74; on it, use the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Hareleeshill is smaller a job than a trip of under 15 miles towards Glasgow, so tell us.
When our technicians arrive around Hareleeshill, what occurs?
Wherever your car came to rest, be it by the local primary school, near Hareleeshill Sports Barn or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Those replies settle this work and our price, so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. You hear that quote by phone, before anybody sets off.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Hareleeshill, briefly
Hareleeshill is a suburban area situated on the riverside in South Lanarkshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Hareleeshill sits at an elevation of 124 metres, near the communities of Shawsburn, Machan, and Burnhead. Hareleeshill is located approximately 14 miles from Glasgow, making it a commuter base for the city. Hareleeshill has a population of around 3030 residents, living in a relatively quiet environment.
Hareleeshill and South Lanarkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Hareleeshill is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Machan and Burnhead among them, across the ML postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting ML9 2.
There's no need to move the car. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Larkhall Baptist Church, a lay-by on the way to Larkhall Golf Course, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of War Memorial.
In short, for Hareleeshill motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around South Lanarkshire.