AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Paisley: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where the car stands in Paisley, is normally what it needs when caught before the engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many modern diesels on the roads around Paisley and Seedhill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles 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 filled at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which cap it needs. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Paisley
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things lining up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Storie Street before work, or in the car park outside The Bull Inn on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: a new car.
No part halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Paisley or out in Castlehead.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Paisley forecourt or a drive over in Shortroods, take a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Paisley Gilmour Street.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere across Renfrewshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of High Street, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you've located the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Paisley already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. Leave the ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on by itself runs your pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
The staff at Shell, BP or any forecourt will normally help pushing your car away when you ask. If you're on your own drive in Paisley, leave the car where it is.
Where your engine has run already, stop somewhere safe then turn it off. Paisley lies under 3 miles from the M8; there, use the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Paisley is less a job than a trip of under 10 miles to Glasgow, and so say.
Paisley: what takes place when we get there
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, close to Willie Gallacher Cairn or on your own drive. Our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, because those answers decide this work and the quote. Nobody sets off before you've had the quote over the phone.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. 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 the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. We do not go until it has been started and is running correctly.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour after we arrive. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Paisley
Paisley is a town situated on the banks of the River Cart in Renfrewshire, with a mix of flat and other types of housing. Paisley lies close to Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, and is connected to the surrounding areas of Castlehead, Laigh Park, and Williamsburgh. Paisley has a relatively low elevation of 21 metres above sea level, reflecting its riverside setting. Paisley is a significant urban centre in the west of Scotland, with a population of approximately 28,434 people.
AdBlue drains about Paisley, and Renfrewshire beyond
Being a riverside town, Paisley shares its vans surrounding places — Laigh Park, Williamsburgh — right through PA postcodes and the wider area around them. Give a postcode that starts PA1 2, and our van arrives quickest.
The vehicle remains where it is. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a street by Made in Paisley, or a layby on the way to Dunn Square. Guessing won't help at the back of Oakshaw Trinity Church, on a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
For Paisley drivers, the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in Renfrewshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.