Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Spittal
Stop reading a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the motor hasn't turned, it is emptied and fully purged where your vehicle is around Spittal. Here before the event? Then what follows covers how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your motor — but many current diesels driven around Spittal and Burnside hold another liquid as well. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Spittal
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Kirkconnel Drive, perhaps at The Croft Bar & Restaurant on the way home after work.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Nothing halts the pour once 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 takes place in Croftfoot or the middle of Spittal, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Spittal forecourt or a driveway out in Castlemilk, take a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what goes in which filler just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Croftfoot.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, wherever in South Lanarkshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Alloway Drive, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — once you've located your filler and read it.
- The two under one flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel filler is still closed before raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Stage five stays out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Spittal already?
Short order, then. Top of that: the motor remains off. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the BP, ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Spittal.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Spittal sits under 3 miles from the M74; there, take the next exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Spittal makes a smaller job than driving under 5 miles towards Glasgow — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival around Spittal, and what occurs next
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, be it by the local primary school, beside St Bartholomew's RC Church or at home, our van travels to it. The replies determine the work and our quote, so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run. During the phone call itself, you are told our quote — before dispatch.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, after your tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Before leaving, we start the engine and check that it's running smoothly.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Spittal, for a moment
Spittal is a village situated on the riverside in South Lanarkshire, with a relatively low elevation of 37 metres. Spittal lies close to Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, and is surrounded by other nearby places such as Croftfoot and High Crosshill. Spittal has a population of approximately 3617 people, predominantly residing in flat-type housing. Spittal is located a significant distance from London, at around 341.5 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Spittal and across South Lanarkshire
High Crosshill and Bankhead are among the towns near Spittal, a village, that the same teams cover, throughout G postcodes. A postcode starting G73 4 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting the vehicle is not necessary. Draining happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a street near CWGC Cross of Sacrifice, or a lay-by towards Croft Park. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Croftfoot Parish Church.
The short version for Spittal people
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever around South Lanarkshire: switch the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.