Hillhead: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave the engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, when your motor hasn't run, it is drained and thoroughly rinsed where your vehicle is around Hillhead. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — yet many modern diesels driven round Hillhead and Yorkhill hold another fluid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Hillhead
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off University Avenue before work, or in the car park outside Bank Street on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
New-to-you cars are second, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Hillhead or out in Kelvingrove.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Finnieston or a forecourt in Hillhead.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- Can't see it next to the diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Exhibition Centre's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever around Glasgow City the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of University Gardens, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using its own spout.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Leave out stage five entirely.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Hillhead?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help push your car clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Sainsbury's, the Esso or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive in Hillhead, leave it where it sits.
Already run? Stop when it is safe, then switch off. Hillhead sits under a mile from the M8; there, use the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Glasgow, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Hillhead.
What occurs when our engineers arrive in Hillhead
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, near The Mackintosh House or on your own drive. Those replies settle the work and our price, so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run. That quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Then the tank is cleared and the system rinsed thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of it washes out unaided, no matter how long it sits. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. The motor is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before our technicians go.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our technicians arrive, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Hillhead itself
Hillhead is a suburban area in Glasgow City, situated on the banks of the River Kelvin. Hillhead sits at an elevation of 43 metres, with its riverside location offering scenic views. Hillhead is characterised by its predominantly flat-type housing and is close to nearby places such as Kelvingrove and Kelvingrove Park. Hillhead is located approximately 2.1 miles from Glasgow city centre.
Hillhead and Glasgow City: AdBlue drains across the area
Kelvingrove Park and Dowanhill are among the places around Hillhead, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over G postcodes. A postcode starting G12 8 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. Wherever it sits — beside Hunter Memorial, in a lay-by heading to Glasgow University Wildlife Garden, on a drive — that's where it gets emptied. Awkward to explain, like the back of Hunterian Art Gallery? Close to a county line? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
Hillhead motorists: the short version
Always, the cap; then, the pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it stands, wherever around Glasgow City: keep the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.