AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Penilee? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the motor. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The harm begins once it's pulled through your lines — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. In Penilee, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Penilee
Do:
- Pocket the keys, which stops someone switching the electrics on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting G52 2, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to shift the vehicle.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself starts your pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short stretch down Hillington Road South.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
At a forecourt in Penilee, whether it is the Gulf or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car clear of the petrol pump. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, and there it treats the gas. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps apart instead of blending — entirely different from fuel. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. A car topped up on a drive in Crookston yesterday evening and not started since counts as the straightforward one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but once the engine turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
Once it's drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. A car left sitting in Penilee with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Petrol put into a diesel on Esso's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the main fault. Harm just comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and left inside your tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits back out — and the next tankful will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Penilee or out in Oldhall, costs more than nearly any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Glasgow City your car is sitting.
Penilee: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually happens outside the house, from a container bought en route home, rather than at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside the local primary school. In the evening, a container goes in on a drive near Merton Drive. One more pattern: dim light, a pub car park by Argosy, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
Rented motors, brand-new cars, fleet vehicles, or the second car in a home with both fuels: the least familiar cars see it the most. An identical slip, an identical first step — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be in Penilee or the rest of Glasgow City.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Penilee?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The filter and lines have had it pulled through, and any running takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Watch for rough running, smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Chirnside Park, perhaps, or part way across Penilee. No restarting to test: pull over once safe, then switch everything off. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M8, under a mile from Penilee, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Penilee to the car park by St Nicholas' Cardonald Church is a very different job from a run towards Glasgow, under 5 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. Spotted early, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Penilee: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
The car remains where it is, whether that is a road near Our Lady & St George's RC Church, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt in Penilee, and our van comes to it. The job rests on three replies, which we get before all else — which fluid was put in, the quantity, and if the engine has run.
Next, emptying your tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. The system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Testing your vehicle follows last, once fresh diesel is added and your filter gets cleaned or, where needed, replaced. Not run? In that case expect about half an hour on site for most jobs. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Lastly, the fuel system is primed with new diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, by Hillington East or on a driveway around Penilee. Before we go, our engineers check it is running smoothly with fresh diesel in. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Penilee and where it is
Penilee is a suburban area in Glasgow City, situated approximately 4.9 miles southwest of Glasgow's city centre. Penilee lies near the River Cart, at an elevation of around 17 metres, and is bordered by nearby places such as Hillington and Cardonald. Penilee is predominantly composed of flat-type housing, which is typical of many suburban areas in Glasgow City. Penilee has a population of around 7395 residents, according to recent estimates.
Penilee and Glasgow City: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the G postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs around Penilee reach much of Glasgow City as well, Hillington, Cardonald and North Cardonald included. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
A van that comes to you suits Penilee, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring your vehicle to us, because we drain it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
Penilee: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no fair single quote, since the jobs are not the same. What moves the price is, first, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Cardonald Parish Church.
Before any quote, not after, each enquiry from Penilee begins with three questions: the fuel, the quantity, and if it ran. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
You get that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Penilee: still next to your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Penilee or anywhere within Glasgow City.