How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Muirhead
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page down a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where your vehicle stands in Muirhead, is normally all it needs if caught before the motor runs. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels around Muirhead and Bridgend run, with diesel feeding the motor. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two together under one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what cap to use. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Muirhead?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Station Road before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village on the way home.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and after the pour starts, nothing halts it. Garnkirk or the heart of Muirhead: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Muirhead forecourt or a driveway out in Gartloch, spend a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- On plenty of motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- Can't find it beside your diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you collect a rental or company car — from Gartcosh's car park, say — not once the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light comes on — wherever it is across North Lanarkshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Neuk Avenue.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Pour 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 look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Leave out step five entirely.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Muirhead?
Brief order, then. First: your motor stays unstarted. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the BP or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Muirhead.
Where your engine has run already, pull over somewhere safe and turn it off. On the M80, under 3 miles from Muirhead, that means the next junction. A short hop across Muirhead is a smaller job than a run towards Glasgow, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When our engineers arrive around Muirhead, what takes place?
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, close to Moore Park Gospel Hall or on your own drive. Our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because those replies settle this work and the quote. The quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out by itself. That is why it matters more. A test is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Then our technicians fire it up and check it runs properly before we leave.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Muirhead
Muirhead is a small village in North Lanarkshire, situated inland at an elevation of 93 metres, approximately 5.6 miles from Glasgow. Muirhead is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is located near other local communities such as Garnkirk, Chryston, and Gartcosh. Muirhead has a population of around 1022 residents and is relatively close to the major urban centre of Glasgow, while being some distance from London, at 344.1 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Muirhead and across North Lanarkshire
Chryston and Gartcosh are among the towns near Muirhead, a rural village, that the same teams cover, over G postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting G69 9.
No need to move the car. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Chryston War Memorial, a lay-by on the way to Crow Wood Golf Club, a drive. Tricky to explain, like the back of Chryston Parish Church? Close to a county line? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
In short, for Muirhead motorists
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever across North Lanarkshire: keep it off then ring 0333 366 0103.