Maukinhill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where the vehicle stands around Maukinhill, is normally all it takes if caught before the engine runs. Reading in advance? In that case what follows covers how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the engine — yet plenty of current diesels driven around Maukinhill and Charing Cross carry a second liquid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Plenty of motors have a single flap for the two, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It is in the gap that the error happens.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Maukinhill?
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Blairmore Road, perhaps at Tail O' The Bank on the way home after work.
New-to-you motors are second, too. Rentals, new cars and company cars place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, keeps on. It's a few seconds, be it out in Cartsdyke or right in the centre of Maukinhill.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Cartsburn or a forecourt around Maukinhill.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Whinhill? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Inverclyde that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Aberfoyle Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read it.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the 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 a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Leave out stage five altogether.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Maukinhill?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Morrisons or the BP, ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the pump. If you're on your own drive in Maukinhill, leave it where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Maukinhill sits under 10 miles from the M8; there, take the first junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Maukinhill is less work than a run of under 25 miles to Glasgow, and so tell us.
Maukinhill: what takes place when our engineers turn up
By the local primary school, near The Monarch of Auchmountain Glen Stag or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since those replies set the work and quote. You hear that quote by phone, before anybody sets off.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears away unaided. That is why it matters more. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs properly, all before our technicians head off.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine hasn't run need about half an hour once we arrive. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Maukinhill, briefly
Maukinhill is a suburban area in Inverclyde, situated on the coast of Scotland, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Maukinhill sits at an elevation of 81 metres, overlooking the surrounding coastline and nearby communities such as Cartsdyke and Ladyburn. Maukinhill is located approximately 20 miles from Glasgow, making it a commuter-friendly location for those working in the city. Maukinhill has a population of around 4214 people, living in a variety of semi-detached homes.
AdBlue drains in Maukinhill and across Inverclyde
Ladyburn and Bridgend are among the towns around Maukinhill, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over PA postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting PA15 3.
No need to move your car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Biodiversity Garden, a side street near Easter Greenock Castle (site of): we drain the vehicle where it stands. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Lady Octavia Sports Centre, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For Maukinhill drivers, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere in Inverclyde: switch the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.