Rutherglen: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, keep the ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done right where the car sits around Rutherglen, is usually all it takes if found before the engine runs. Here in advance? In that case what follows explains why it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of newer diesels around High Crosshill, as well as Rutherglen, carry on two liquids; the engine gets just your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Plenty of cars have a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each filling station call-out, again and again. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. It is in that gap that the error lives.
Rutherglen: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Green Road, or at Stirrup Cup on the way home after work.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new motor 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 goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and after the tip begins, nothing halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Rutherglen or out in Gallowflat.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Shawfield or a forecourt in Rutherglen.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- On plenty of vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside the nearest station? Check with whoever drove it last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — wherever you are across South Lanarkshire — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush beside Main Street on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Rutherglen already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone starts the pump. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The staff at BP, Tesco or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle away if you ask. If you are on your own drive around Rutherglen, leave the car where it sits.
Where the motor has run already, pull over safely then switch it off. Leave the M74 — under a mile out of Rutherglen — at the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Glasgow, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Rutherglen.
What occurs when our engineers get there around Rutherglen
Anywhere your car has stopped, be it outside the local primary school, near Rutherglen Library or at home, the van travels to it. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since the replies settle this work and our quote. During the call itself, you are told the price — ahead of anything else.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once the tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals corrode, and nothing clears out on its own, no matter how long it sits. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. After that we fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Rutherglen and where it is
Rutherglen is a town situated on the south bank of the River Clyde in South Lanarkshire, with a mix of flat and other types of housing. Rutherglen lies close to Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, and is connected to it by several main roads. Rutherglen has a population of around 23,400 people and is near several smaller communities, including Gallowflat and Farm Cross. Rutherglen is relatively low-lying, with an average elevation of 24 metres above sea level.
AdBlue drains round Rutherglen, and South Lanarkshire beyond
Farm Cross and Bankhead are among the places near Rutherglen, a riverside town, that the same teams cover, throughout G postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting G73 2.
There's no need to move your car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Overtoun Park, a side street close to The Salvation Army - Rutherglen: we drain the car where it sits. Assuming won't help at the back of Mercat Cross, on a border, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and check.
In short, for Rutherglen people
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, wherever across South Lanarkshire: keep it off then phone 0333 366 0103.