Cathcart: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your engine. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. The trouble begins once it is pulled through your pump — it will not burn, and it won't combine with diesel. In Cathcart, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Cathcart: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, and that stops someone turning the power on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the quantity, and so do not bin it away.
- Call right where you are. Say a G44 3 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Do not do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the vehicle: your engine stays off.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it's pointless.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short stretch down Monreith Road East.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
Moving the car off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Cathcart forecourt you are on, the BP included. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains just as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, where it treats the fumes. Nothing inside an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of it was intended to go that way.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the very place the intake sucks from. A motor filled on a driveway in Muirend overnight and left unstarted counts as the simple one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when your engine turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning around Cathcart makes things worse. Inside that tank only, time costs nothing. Then there is the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Asda, and the issue is thinned fuel. Blended into the diesel and sitting still, it is no threat at that stage; using the motor does the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether the vehicle sits in Merrylee or the heart of Cathcart, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and that tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Glasgow City the car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Cathcart?
It is not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. A container picked up when heading home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the typical story.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. The refill gets hurried outside the local primary school, because the dash lit up with a warning while the children were dropped in. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a drive close to Clarkston Road. One more pattern: darkness, a pub car park by Beechings, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
The least familiar cars see it most — rentals, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the other motor of a home with both fuels. Wherever you're around Cathcart or the remainder of Glasgow City, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Cathcart?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been pulled through your filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
You may see your engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Old Cathcart Community Garden or halfway across Cathcart. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M74, under 3 miles from Cathcart, by the first junction and park somewhere safe, not driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system. That is why crossing Cathcart to park near Couper Institute Library and a drive of under 5 miles towards Glasgow are very distinct jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. If it's caught early, long-term damage is very unusual.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Cathcart
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Cathcart: a side street close to Cathcart United Free Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work rests on three replies, and our engineers ask for first — which fluid got in, the amount, and if the motor has run.
Then that tank is emptied where your car stands, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is flushed all the way through since what remains will not wash away unaided. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Finally, the system is primed with fresh diesel. After that our engineers start the engine and you drive off, whether from a parking bay at the nearest station or a driveway in Cathcart. It's tested on fresh diesel to be sure it runs correctly before we go. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. At the end, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Cathcart
Cathcart is a suburban area in Glasgow City, situated on the banks of the River Cart at an elevation of 29 metres. Cathcart lies approximately 3.4 miles from Glasgow city centre and is surrounded by other suburban areas such as Mount Florida, Battlefield, and Kings Park. Cathcart is characterised by its predominantly flat-type housing and is home to around 9573 residents. Cathcart's riverside setting provides a unique aspect to its landscape.
AdBlue drains across Cathcart and Glasgow City
AdBlue call-outs around Cathcart go to vans that cover the towns around it — Mount Florida, Battlefield plus Kings Park — and much of Glasgow City further out, throughout G postcodes. Close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking is better than guessing, so phone.
Wherever your car stands — a drive at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Cathcart, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Cathcart
Each job differs, so not one fixed quote is fair. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open drive is simpler for our van to reach safely than a tight space behind Cathcart Trinity Church.
With that reason, each call from Cathcart begins with the identical trio — what was put in, how much, whether the engine ran — before a quote. Once they are known, a range becomes one fixed figure.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Look at your policy while we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Beside your car around Cathcart, still?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if the engine ran are all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Glasgow City, Cathcart included.