AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Possil Park? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave the motor off then keep the ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Possil Park, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your engine has been run. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Possil Park: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the product and the amount, so don't throw it out.
- Give us a postcode starting G22 6, or whatever street lies nearest, and our van finds you straight — so call wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the car: your motor stays off.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment your ignition comes on, so keep it off.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not thin it.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short way down Denmark Street.
- Draining that tank yourself by the road isn't worth trying.
The attendants working at any Possil Park filling station — the Shell among them — will usually help rolling it clear if you ask. On the drive, your car remains just as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same spot the pickup sucks from. A car filled on a driveway in Milton overnight and left unstarted is the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — though when your engine turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. 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, and so it keeps running on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. A car left sitting in Possil Park with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water gives none of that, which is a separate kind of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the BP. Blended into your diesel and left still, it is harmless at that stage; using your motor is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, so it can't just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates again — and the next tankful will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Possil Park or out in Firhill, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
As with petrol, there's good news. Wherever across Glasgow City the car has stopped, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Possil Park
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle picked up when driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual route.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. The top-up gets rushed outside the local primary school, because your dash lit up with a warning as the children were dropped in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Mansion Street. One more version: darkness, a pub car park outside The Brothers Bar, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
Rented motors, new vehicles, fleet vehicles, or the second car in a home with both fuels: the least known cars get it most. An identical slip, same first step — leave it switched off — anywhere you are in Possil Park or the rest of Glasgow City.
Possil Park: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. The filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and any running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Brother's Path, perhaps, or midway across Possil Park. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Keep the car off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M8, under 3 miles from Possil Park, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Possil Park to the car park by Possilpoint Community Centre is a very different job from a run towards Glasgow, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the car has ended up, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Permanent damage is very uncommon if it is noticed early.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Possil Park: what it takes
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Possil Park: a side street close to Keppoch Park, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid went in, roughly how much, plus if your motor has turned over: our engineers ask first, since those decide the work.
Next, draining your tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed all the way through because residue will not wash out by itself. After that, the filter: cleaned, or replaced when it must be. After that clean diesel, and then a check of your car. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once we arrive, provided your motor has not run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the last step. Whether it's a parking bay at Ashfield or a driveway in Possil Park, that is where we start it and you drive off. It's tested on fresh diesel to be sure it runs correctly before our engineers head off. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Possil Park itself
Possil Park is a suburban area in Glasgow City, situated near the lakeside and approximately 1.7 miles from Glasgow city centre. Possil Park has a relatively low elevation of 52 metres and is characterised by predominantly flat-type housing. Possil Park is close to nearby places such as Cowlairs, Parkhouse, and Hamiltonhill, and is home to around 5789 residents.
AdBlue drains across Possil Park and Glasgow City
Cowlairs, Parkhouse and Hamiltonhill are among the towns around Possil Park that the same vans reach, together with most of Glasgow City beyond, over the G postcode area. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A mobile service suits Possil Park, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring the vehicle to us, since our engineers drain it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Possil Park: the cost of fixing it
Since the jobs vary, a flat figure would not be honest. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open driveway is simpler for a van to get to safely than a tight gap behind Winners Chapel International.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, plus if the engine ran: every Possil Park enquiry begins with exactly that, before a figure, not afterwards. With them, a range narrows to a single fixed number.
You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, dig out your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
Possil Park: still beside the car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Possil Park or anywhere within Glasgow City, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.