AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kirkintilloch: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
Pause reading a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where your car stands in Kirkintilloch, is normally all it takes if caught before the motor runs. Not happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels near Kirkintilloch and Hillhead carry, with diesel for your engine. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Many of motors share a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Kirkintilloch: how it takes place
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Braehead Street before work, or in the car park outside Kirky Puffer on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Eastside or the middle of Kirkintilloch, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Kirkintilloch forecourt or a driveway out in Broomhill, take a couple of seconds over these before any goes in.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook says where it lives if your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Lenzie? Check with the person who drove it last before you set off, rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around East Dunbartonshire that is.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside New Lairdsland Road at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour gently through its built-in spout.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third step that the bottle went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Kirkintilloch?
Brief order, then. Top of that: the engine remains unstarted. Keep the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts the pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Shell, Gulf or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the car clear, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Kirkintilloch.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. On the M80, under 3 miles from Kirkintilloch, that means the next exit. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Kirkintilloch makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Glasgow — so say roughly how far it went.
When our technicians turn up in Kirkintilloch, what occurs?
Anywhere the car has stopped, whether outside the local primary school, beside William Patrick Library or on your own drive, the van travels to it. What fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because those replies set the work and quote. That price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out unaided. That is why it counts more. Once the fuel filter is flushed — or renewed, if required — clean diesel is added, and then your car gets tested. The engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine hasn't run need roughly half an hour once we arrive. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Kirkintilloch and where it is
Kirkintilloch is a town situated on the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal in East Dunbartonshire, with a mix of flat and other types of housing. Kirkintilloch lies about 6 miles northeast of Glasgow, near the neighbouring areas of Eastside, Barleybank, and Townhead. Kirkintilloch has a population of around 12,600 people and is located at an elevation of approximately 45 metres above sea level. Kirkintilloch is also relatively distant from London, at around 348 miles away.
AdBlue drains across East Dunbartonshire, Kirkintilloch included
Over G postcodes, our vans that cover Kirkintilloch — a riverside town — work the nearby locations too, Townhead and Barleybank among them. Quote a postcode beginning G66 1, and the van arrives fastest.
Your car remains put. Anywhere it sits — near Hazelton Robert Robson Memorial, in a layby en route to Peel Park, at home — that's where it is drained. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Auld Kirk Museum, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for Kirkintilloch drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across East Dunbartonshire.