How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lancefield
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page down for now, keep your ignition and motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Lancefield. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it occurs and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your motor — but plenty of current diesels driven round Lancefield and Broomielaw hold another liquid too. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where a spray cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both together under one flap. Diesel gets filled on every filling station call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person 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 Lancefield?
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Elliot Street before work, or in the car park outside Bloc Pop Up on the way home.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
No part halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Lancefield or out in Anderston.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Kingston or a forecourt in Lancefield.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Exhibition Centre's car park, perhaps — rather than when the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is in Glasgow City — a routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and never rushed by Stobcross Street on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have found your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Skip stage five altogether.
Lancefield: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your motor: that's how the short order of things begins. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the BP, the Sainsbury's or anywhere else. If you are on your own drive around Lancefield, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. The next exit means the place to leave when you're on the Kingston Bridge, under a mile from Lancefield. A short hop across Lancefield is a smaller job than a run towards Glasgow, under 3 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when our engineers get there around Lancefield
Wherever your car has stopped, whether by the local primary school, near Music Broth - Scotland's Loudest Library or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — which fluid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. Nobody sets off until you've heard the price by phone.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out unaided, no matter how long it is left. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Next our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs correctly before we leave.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Lancefield and where it is
Lancefield is a suburban area located on the riverside in Glasgow City, with a relatively low elevation of 7 metres. Lancefield sits close to the city centre, approximately 1.7 miles from Glasgow, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Anderston, Kinning Park, and Finnieston. Lancefield is predominantly composed of flat-type housing, which accommodates its population of around 6800 residents.
AdBlue drains across Glasgow City, Lancefield included
Over G postcodes, the vans covering Lancefield — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Finnieston and Kinning Park included. Give a postcode beginning G3 8, and the van arrives fastest.
The vehicle does not need to shift. Anywhere it stands — beside Finnieston Crane, in a layby heading to Festival Park, on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. Awkward to pin down, like the back of The Salvation Army? Close to a county line? Asking is better than assuming, so phone.
Lancefield people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Glasgow City, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.