Kelvindale: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, leave the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where your vehicle stands around Kelvindale, is normally what it needs if caught before the engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many modern diesels around Kelvinside, as well as Kelvindale, run on two fluids; the engine takes just your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Many of cars have a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Kelvindale: how it happens
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and running dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Ashburton Road, or at 1051 GWR on the way home after work.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, keeps on. It takes seconds, be it in Dawsholm or right in the centre of Kelvindale.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Wyndford or a forecourt around Kelvindale, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Glasgow City that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Baronald Gate, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — making sure the diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Kelvindale already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — BP, Morrisons or another — the staff will normally help push your car clear, when you ask. At home around Kelvindale? So the vehicle stays where it is.
When the motor has been run already, pull over safely and switch it off. On the M8, under 3 miles from Kelvindale, that means the next exit. A short hop across Kelvindale is a smaller job than a run towards Glasgow, under 5 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we arrive in Kelvindale, what takes place?
By the local primary school, near St John’s-Renfield Church or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — which liquid, what amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole 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 does not wash out on its own. Once your filter is cleaned — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle is tested. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our technicians get there, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Kelvindale and where it is
Kelvindale is a suburban area in Glasgow City, situated on the River Kelvin at an elevation of around 51 metres. Kelvindale is bounded by nearby places such as Dawsholm, Maryhill, and Hyndland, and is approximately 3.2 miles from Glasgow city centre. Kelvindale has a population of around 7795 people, predominantly residing in flat-type housing. Kelvindale is located in a scenic riverside setting, with the River Kelvin running through the area.
AdBlue drains across Glasgow City, Kelvindale included
Kelvindale is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Maryhill and Hyndland among them, across the G postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting G12 0.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. Draining happens right there, whether a drive, a road near St. Gregory's, or a lay-by towards Balgray. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Maryhill Hub? Close to a county line? Checking is better than assuming, and so phone.
The short version for Kelvindale drivers
Read the cap before you tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, anywhere in Glasgow City: switch the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.