Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Millersneuk
Pause here for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor has not run, it is emptied and thoroughly purged where your car is around Millersneuk. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that is how many newer diesels near Millersneuk and Woodilee run, with diesel feeding your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Different 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. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Millersneuk: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Foxes Grove before work, or in the car park outside The Golden Pheasent on the way home.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and after the pour starts, nothing stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Millersneuk or out in Claddens.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Back O Loch or a forecourt in Millersneuk, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Lenzie? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in East Dunbartonshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Easter Garngaber Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the 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's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Millersneuk already?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. 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 — Gulf, JET or any other — the staff will usually help push the vehicle away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Millersneuk.
Already run? Stop once it is safe, then switch off. The next exit is where to come off if you are on the M80, under 3 miles from Millersneuk. About how far did it go? Hopping across Millersneuk is less a job than a trip of under 10 miles to Glasgow, so say.
When we arrive in Millersneuk, what takes place?
The van reaches the car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Lenzie Old Parish, or by the local primary school. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — what fluid, which quantity, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. Nobody heads out until you have heard the price over the phone.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. Next our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before we go.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Millersneuk
Millersneuk is a suburban area situated on the riverside in East Dunbartonshire, with a mix of housing types dominated by detached homes. Millersneuk lies close to the city of Glasgow, approximately 5.5 miles to the northwest, and is near other local places such as Claddens and Lenzie. Millersneuk has a relatively small population of around 3797 residents, living in an area with an average elevation of 58 metres. Millersneuk is part of the wider Glasgow urban area, but retains its own distinct character.
AdBlue drains about Millersneuk, and East Dunbartonshire beyond
Orchard Park and Lenzie are among the towns near Millersneuk, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over G postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning G66 5, and our van arrives fastest.
There's no need to move the vehicle. Wherever it stands — near Lenzie Union Parish Church, in a layby en route to Lenzie Rugby Football Club, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. Tricky to explain, like the back of Lenzie Hall? Close to a border? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
The short version for Millersneuk people
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, wherever in East Dunbartonshire: keep the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.