AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hunterhill: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
Stop here a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Hunterhill, catching it before the motor runs normally means draining and a full flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — yet many newer diesels seen about Hunterhill and Thornly Park hold another fluid too. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hunterhill: how it takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Wenlock Road before work, or in the car park at Abbey Inn heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and once the pour starts, nothing halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Hunterhill or out in Lochfield.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Dykebar or a forecourt in Hunterhill.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you collect a hire car or company car — from Paisley Canal's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever around Renfrewshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Hillside Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Leave out stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Hunterhill already?
Don't start your motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Morrisons, Shell or any other — the staff will normally help roll your car away, if you ask. Your own drive around Hunterhill is the place it stays.
Where your motor has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe and turn the car off. On the M8, under 3 miles from Hunterhill, that means the next exit. A short hop across Hunterhill is a smaller job than a run towards Glasgow, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Hunterhill, and what takes place next
Our van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Lylesland Parish Church, or by the local primary school. We ask what got in, about how much, and if it's run, since the replies settle this work and our quote. The price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your car. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Hunterhill and where it is
Hunterhill is a suburban area in Renfrewshire, situated inland at an elevation of 37 metres, approximately 7 miles west of Glasgow. Hunterhill is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and is located near other suburban areas such as Lochfield and Charleston. Hunterhill sits within the wider Glasgow urban area, yet remains a distinct community with its own residential identity. Hunterhill is also close to Blackhall, another nearby suburban area.
Hunterhill and Renfrewshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over PA postcodes, the teams covering Hunterhill — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Blackhall and Charleston included. Fastest of all: quote a PA2 6 postcode for our van.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. Wherever it stands — near Lochfield Bowling Club, in a lay-by en route to The Marshes, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Charles' Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Hunterhill motorists
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Renfrewshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.