How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kennishead
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, keep your ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done just where the car stands around Kennishead, is normally what it needs if caught before your motor runs. Reading in advance? Then what follows covers how it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Not one liquid but two: that is what many modern diesels near Kennishead and Darnley carry, with diesel for the motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of motors have a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what filler to use. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Kennishead?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Boydstone Road before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
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 after it has started. Carnwadric or the middle of Kennishead: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt in Kennishead or a driveway over in Mansewood. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On plenty of cars, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere in Glasgow City the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Carnwadric Road.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've located the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Don't carry on to stage five.
Kennishead: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the BP, the EG On the Move or anywhere else. Your own driveway around Kennishead is where it stays.
Where the motor has been run already, stop safely then switch the vehicle off. Kennishead lies under a mile from the M77; on it, use the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Kennishead is less a job than a trip of under 5 miles towards Glasgow, and so tell us.
Our arrival in Kennishead, and what takes place next
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, close to Kennishead Community Hall or on your own drive. What fluid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because the answers set the work and price. The price comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole 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 that counts more here than with petrol. Testing is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Then our technicians start the car and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided the motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Kennishead, for a moment
Kennishead is a suburban area in Glasgow City, situated near the River Cart at an elevation of 28 metres. Kennishead lies approximately 4.9 miles from Glasgow city centre and is surrounded by nearby places such as Carnwadric, Arden, and Thornliebank. Kennishead is characterised by its predominant housing type, which is mainly flat. Kennishead is located relatively close to the heart of Glasgow, yet is far from London, at a distance of 343.4 miles.
AdBlue drains round Kennishead, and Glasgow City beyond
Arden and Thornliebank are among the towns near Kennishead, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout G postcodes. Fastest of all: give a G46 8 postcode for our van.
No need to shift the car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to King George V Park, a side street near Carnwadric Church: our engineers drain the car where it stands. Awkward to explain, like the back of Kennishead Farm? By a county line? Checking is better than assuming, so ring.
In short, for Kennishead drivers
Always, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere around Glasgow City.