Swinton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, keep the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Swinton. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Not one fluid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels around Swinton and Barrachnie run, with diesel feeding your engine. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place both side by side behind one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which cap to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
Swinton: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Easterhouse Road, perhaps at Swinton Tavern on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company cars put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as easily, and once the pour starts, nothing halts it. It takes a few seconds, whether in Baillieston or bang in the heart of Swinton.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Barlanark or a forecourt around Swinton, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many motors mark which belongs in which filler just there.
- The handbook shows where it lives if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you collect a rental or company car — from Easterhouse's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Wherever across Glasgow City the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Queensby Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you've located your filler and read it.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift 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 once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Leave out step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Swinton?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. Keep your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts your fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Shell, the Morrisons or somewhere else. On your own drive in Swinton? So the vehicle stays put.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M8 — under a mile out of Swinton — at the next exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Swinton makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to Glasgow — so say about how far it went.
Swinton: what occurs when our technicians turn up
Anywhere the car has stopped, whether outside the local primary school, beside St Bridget's Roman Catholic Church or at home, the van comes to it. Both the work and the price depend on three answers — which liquid, which amount, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. Nobody sets off until you have heard the quote over the phone.
Then the tank is emptied and the fuel system purged thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of that washes away on its own, however long it sits. After the fuel filter is flushed — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel is added, and then your vehicle gets tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running properly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run take about half an hour once we are there. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Swinton itself
Swinton is a suburban area in Glasgow City, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 79 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Swinton lies approximately 5 miles east of Glasgow city centre, near the neighbouring areas of Baillieston, Garrowhill, and Easterhouse. Swinton has a population of around 4720 residents, making it a relatively small but distinct community within the larger Glasgow urban area. Swinton is also located a significant distance from major English cities, with London being around 342 miles to the southeast.
AdBlue drains about Swinton, and Glasgow City beyond
Swinton is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Garrowhill and Easterhouse among them, across the G postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts G69 6, and our van gets there fastest.
No need to move the car. We drain it where it is — a side street near Baillieston Library, a lay-by on the way to Swinton Recreation Ground, a driveway. Assuming won't help behind Phoenix, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
In short, for Swinton people
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, anywhere around Glasgow City: keep the car off then call 0333 366 0103.