Bridge of Weir: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Keep your motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Bridge of Weir. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single fluid but two: that's how many modern diesels around Bridge of Weir and Houston run, with diesel feeding your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Bridge of Weir?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Main Street, or outside Gryffe Inn on the way home that evening.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as readily, and once the tip begins, nothing stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Bridge of Weir or out in Ranfurly.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Kilbarchan or a forecourt in Bridge of Weir, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Milliken Park? Check with whoever drove it last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever around Renfrewshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Mill Brae.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found the 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.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — confirm your diesel filler stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bridge of Weir?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Morrisons, Tesco or another — the staff will usually help push the vehicle clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Bridge of Weir.
Where the engine has run already, pull over somewhere safe and turn the car off. On the M8, under 5 miles from Bridge of Weir, that means the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Glasgow, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Bridge of Weir.
What occurs when our engineers get there around Bridge of Weir
Outside the local primary school, close to Freeland Church or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — what liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. Nobody heads out until you've had the quote by phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once your filter is flushed — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally the car gets tested. The engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers head off.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our technicians arrive, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Bridge of Weir, briefly
Bridge of Weir is a village situated on the banks of the River Gryffe in Renfrewshire, with a mix of flat housing and other residential properties. Bridge of Weir lies approximately 13 miles west of Glasgow and is close to nearby places such as Ranfurly and Crosslee. Bridge of Weir has a population of around 2009 people and is located at an elevation of 50 metres above sea level. Bridge of Weir is also relatively distant from London, being around 351 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Renfrewshire, Bridge of Weir included
Throughout PA postcodes, the teams covering Bridge of Weir — a village — work the surrounding places too, Crosslee and Clevans among them. A postcode starting PA11 3 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Houston Road Park (Bridge of Weir), a side street near Bridge of Weir community library: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. Guessing doesn't help behind Cargill Hall, on a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
Bridge of Weir drivers: the short version
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, wherever across Renfrewshire: keep the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.