How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Westermains
Keep your motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Westermains. Here in advance? In that case the rest explains why it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of current diesels on the roads round Westermains and Kirkintilloch carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
There is a filler on each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Westermains
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Roman Road, or heading home in the car park at Kirky Puffer.
Unfamiliar vehicles are next, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company cars put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, keeps on. It takes a few seconds, be it out in The Greens or bang in the centre of Westermains.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in High Gallowhill or a forecourt in Westermains, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors mark which belongs in each filler just there.
- Can't see it next to your diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Lenzie, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Wherever around East Dunbartonshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Woodland Avenue.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've located your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Stop when the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently using the built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — confirm the diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Leave out step five entirely.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Westermains?
Do not start the engine: that's how the short order of things begins. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Shell, JET or any other — the attendants will usually help push the vehicle away, if you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Westermains, leave the car where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. The next junction is where to leave when you are on the M80, under 3 miles from Westermains. Mileage counts — a short hop across Westermains is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to Glasgow — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Westermains: what occurs when our technicians get there
Wherever your car has stopped, be it outside the local primary school, beside Kirkintilloch Community Sports Complex or at home, our van travels to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — which liquid, what amount, and whether it has run — so we ask. No one sets off before you've heard our quote by phone.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of that washes out by itself. Hence it matters more. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. The motor is started next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before we head off.
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 working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Westermains
Westermains is a suburban area situated on the riverside in East Dunbartonshire, with a relatively low elevation of around 50 metres. Westermains lies close to the nearby places of The Greens, Barleybank, and Townhead, and is approximately 5.6 miles from Glasgow. Westermains has a population of around 1936 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Westermains is also located a significant distance from London, at around 347.6 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Westermains and across East Dunbartonshire
As a residential suburb, Westermains shares its vans nearby places — Barleybank, Townhead — right across G postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting G66 1.
Moving your car is not needed. We drain it where it is — a side street near Kirkintilloch Roman fort, a lay-by on the way to Peel Park, a drive. Tricky to explain, like the back of The Church of God? By a county line? Checking is better than assuming, and so phone.
The short version for Westermains motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere across East Dunbartonshire.