Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Renton: Why It Happens
Leave your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Renton, catching it before your motor runs usually means a drain and a full flush where it stands. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds your motor — but plenty of current diesels seen about Renton and Alexandria hold a second fluid as well. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank comes with a 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. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which cap to use. It's in that gap that the error happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Renton: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Stirling Street, or heading home in the car park at the pub in the village.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Redburn or the heart of Renton: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Pappert or a forecourt in Renton, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever across West Dunbartonshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and not rushed by Red Row on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Shut the cap, and look again — confirm your diesel filler remained closed the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Leave out step five entirely.
Renton: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at John H Glen & Son, Esso or any forecourt will normally help pushing the car clear if you ask. If you're on your own drive in Renton, leave the car where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Renton sits under 5 miles from the M8; there, take the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Glasgow, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Renton.
Our arrival in Renton, and what takes place next
Our van reaches your car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Renton Water Works Memorial Fountain, or by the local primary school. Our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because those replies decide this work and the quote. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out on its own, no matter how long it sits. The filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. Your engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor hasn't run need about half an hour once we are there. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Renton, briefly
Renton is a small coastal village in West Dunbartonshire, situated near the shores of the Clyde Estuary at an elevation of around 12 metres. Renton lies within commuting distance of Glasgow, which is approximately 15 miles away, and is close to nearby places such as Redburn and Bonhill. Renton has a population of around 1560 people, predominantly living in flat-type housing.
AdBlue drains across West Dunbartonshire, Renton included
Renton is a coastal village, and the teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Ohare and Bonhill among them, across the G postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning G82 4, and the van gets there quickest.
Your car does not need to shift. The drain takes place right there, whether a drive, a street by Smollet Monument, or a lay-by on the way to Millburn Gardens. Tricky to explain, like the back of Renton War Memorial? By a border? Checking is better than assuming, so ring.
Renton motorists: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in West Dunbartonshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.