How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wishaw
Pause here a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor hasn't turned, it is emptied and thoroughly purged where the car is in Wishaw. Here in advance? Then what follows covers why it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Not one fluid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels around Wishaw and Waterloo run, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in on every filling station visit, week in, week out. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which cap to use. The error lives in that gap.
Wishaw: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and running out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Kenilworth Avenue, or outside The Wishaw Malt on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: an unfamiliar vehicle.
No part stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Greenhead or the middle of Wishaw, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Wishaw or a driveway over in Netherton. Seconds, that's all.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On many cars, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you collect a rental or company car — from the nearest station's car park, say — rather than once the warning appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere in North Lanarkshire, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Hill Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Both behind one flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel side stays shut ahead of 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 vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Wishaw?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Morrisons, the Tesco or anywhere else. On your own drive in Wishaw? So the car stays where it is.
Where the motor has run by now, stop somewhere safe and switch the car off. Wishaw sits under 3 miles from the M74; there, use the next junction. A short hop across Wishaw is a smaller job than a run towards Glasgow, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Wishaw: what occurs when we arrive
Our van reaches your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, near Wishaw Old Parish Church, or outside the local primary school. We ask what got in, about how much, and if it's run, because those answers settle this work and the price. No one sets off until you've had our quote by phone.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes out unaided. That is why it counts more. After the filter has been flushed — or renewed, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally the car is tested. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our engineers get there, provided the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Wishaw, for a moment
Wishaw is a town situated on the banks of the North Calder Water in North Lanarkshire, with a mix of flat and other types of housing. Wishaw lies about 13 miles southeast of Glasgow and 145 metres above sea level, in a riverside setting that has influenced its development. Wishaw is close to nearby places such as Greenhead, Pather, and Dimsdale, and is part of the wider Glasgow urban area. Wishaw has a population of around 18327 people, making it a significant settlement in the region.
AdBlue drains across North Lanarkshire, Wishaw included
Being a riverside town, Wishaw shares its vans nearby places — Pather, Dimsdale — all the way across ML postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quickest of all: give a ML2 7 postcode to our van.
The car stays where it is. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Armed Forces Garden, a side street near South Wishaw Parish Church: our engineers drain it where it stands. Awkward to pin down, like the back of St Ignatius? Close to a county line? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
In short, for Wishaw people
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, anywhere around North Lanarkshire: switch the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.