Cardross: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Keep your motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Cardross. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one fluid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels around Cardross and Colgrain run, with diesel for the engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the fumes.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two together behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what cap it needs. It's in the gap that the error happens.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Cardross?
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Main Road, perhaps at Cardross Inn on the way home after work.
New-to-you motors come next, too. Rentals, new motors and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, keeps on. Geilston or the heart of Cardross: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Kelburn or a forecourt around Cardross.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many cars mark which belongs in each inlet right there.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook will say where.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you collect a hire car or company car — at the nearest station's car park, perhaps — not when the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Argyll and Bute that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Park Terrace, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your 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. Never carry on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Cardross?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Tesco, the Shell or anywhere else. If you're on your own drive in Cardross, leave the car where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Leave the M8 — under 5 miles out of Cardross — at the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Cardross is smaller a job than a run of under 25 miles to Glasgow, so say.
Cardross: what takes place when our technicians arrive
Outside the local primary school, near Cardross Library or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — what fluid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. The price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. Next we fire it up and check it runs smoothly before leaving.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Cardross itself
Cardross is a coastal village in Argyll and Bute, situated near the Firth of Clyde and close to the towns of Geilston and Helensburgh. Cardross has a population of around 1403 people and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Cardross is located near the villages of Kelhurn and Ardoch, and its coastal setting provides scenic views. Cardross sits at a low elevation of 11 metres above sea level, near the banks of the River Clyde.
Cardross and Argyll and Bute: AdBlue drains across the area
Kelhurn and Ardoch are among the towns near Cardross, a coastal village, that the same teams cover, throughout G postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a G82 5 postcode for our van.
There's no need to move the car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Cardross Golf Club, a side street near War Memorial: our technicians drain the vehicle where it stands. Awkward to pin down, like the back of John Reginald Noble Graham VC Memorial? Close to a county line? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
For Cardross drivers, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere in Argyll and Bute.