Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Nitshill
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your engine off and keep the ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Being water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble only comes once your pump begins drawing it. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Nitshill. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Nitshill, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, take your keys out.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call right where you are. Quote a G53 7 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is wasted.
- Do not drive it anywhere, not even a short way along Pinmore Place.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the roadside.
Rolling the car away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Nitshill forecourt you're on, the Barrhead Services included. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. No part inside a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of it was intended to go that way.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after poured in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and settles down where the intake takes its supply from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Priesthill overnight and has not turned since. The liquid sits at the foot of that tank, undrawn — but it will be the first thing through once your engine runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of damage from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and tiny channels; meanwhile, because it eats at some metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. A vehicle left sitting in Nitshill with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. And there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that need it most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol from the Esso. Mixed into your diesel and left still, it's no threat for now; running the motor is the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. It cannot just be run through, because it does not burn. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Dovecothall or the middle of Nitshill.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever in Glasgow City your car has stopped.
Nitshill: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not deliberate. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. Mostly it is never the filling station: a driver picks up a bottle driving home and tips it in at home.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside the local primary school the refill is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Pinmore Street. Or someone new to that flap tops up the car in dim light, parked in the car park by the pub in the village.
It takes place most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same slip, an identical first step — leave it switched off — wherever you happen to be around Nitshill or the remainder of Glasgow City.
Nitshill: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. With any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through the fuel filter and pipework.
Maybe coming back from Barrhead Community Garden, or midway across Nitshill, your motor may run lumpy, smoke, lose pace, flash your dash or stall. When you safely can, pull over and turn it off — with no turning it on again to see. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the M77, under 3 miles from Nitshill, by the first junction and park safely, rather than carrying on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system. That is why crossing Nitshill to park near Glasgow Museums Resource Centre and a drive of under 10 miles for Glasgow are very separate jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the flushing where the vehicle has stopped, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Caught soon, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
Nitshill: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
We come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Nitshill: a side street close to War Memorial, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job rests on three replies, which we get first — which fluid went in, the amount, and whether your engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together after your tank is emptied, on the spot. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what remains will not wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians turn up, if the engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the final step. You drive off as soon as we have started it, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway in Nitshill or in a bay outside the nearest station. The check before we leave is that it runs correctly on new diesel. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers want.
About Nitshill
Nitshill is a locality situated on the riverside in Glasgow City, with an elevation of 37 metres above sea level. Nitshill lies approximately 6.2 miles from Glasgow city centre and is surrounded by nearby places such as Waterside, Hurlet, and Bowerwalls. Nitshill has a population of around 929 residents, predominantly living in flat-type housing. Nitshill is located relatively far from London, at a distance of 344.5 miles.
AdBlue drains across Glasgow City, Nitshill included
Waterside, Hurlet and Bowerwalls are among the places near Nitshill that the same vans serve, along with most of Glasgow City beyond, throughout the G postcode area. Phone and ask rather than guess if you're by a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
Anywhere the car stands — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — our technicians drain it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Nitshill, a small village, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Nitshill: the cost of fixing it
Every job is different, so not one single price would be fair. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, since an open driveway is simpler for our van to get to safely than a tight space behind Nitshill Colliery Disaster Memorial.
Before a figure, not after, each enquiry from Nitshill begins with three questions: the liquid, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. With them, the range shrinks to one fixed figure.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is travelling, check your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
Still beside your car in Nitshill?
Not touching your car is, then, the most useful move you can do. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if it ran is everything our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Glasgow City, Nitshill included.