Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Riverside
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. In Riverside, finding it before the engine turns normally means a drain and a full flush on the spot. Reading before the event? Then what follows covers why it comes about and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — but plenty of newer diesels seen around Riverside and Kinning Park carry a second fluid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two together behind one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what cap to use. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Riverside
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
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 driveway off Elphinstone Place before work, or in the car park outside Louden Tavern on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: a strange motor.
No part stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Summertown or the middle of Riverside, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Kelvinhaugh or a forecourt around Riverside, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Exhibition Centre, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere you are in Glasgow City — a simple routine to use.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Burndyke Square.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Both behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel side stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — confirm the diesel cap remained shut the whole time. Only then, start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Riverside?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so leave it off. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — BP, Esso or another — the staff will normally help roll your car away, if you ask. Your own drive around Riverside is where it should stay.
Already started? Stop once it is safe, then switch off. Riverside sits under a mile from the M8; there, use the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Glasgow, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Riverside.
When our technicians turn up around Riverside, what happens?
Outside the local primary school, near Grace Baptist Church Govan or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. What fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask because those replies set both work and quote. Nobody sets off until you have had the quote over the phone.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, once the tank is emptied. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away unaided. Hence it matters more. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we arrive, as long as your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Riverside
Riverside is a suburban area located on the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow City, with a mix of residential and commercial properties. Riverside sits at a low elevation of around 7 metres, close to the city centre of Glasgow, which is approximately 2.4 miles away. Riverside is characterised by its predominant housing type, which is flats, and its proximity to nearby places such as Summertown and Cessnock.
AdBlue drains in Riverside and across Glasgow City
Cessnock and Moorpark are among the towns around Riverside, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over G postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts G51 2, and our van arrives fastest.
There's no need to move your car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Riverside Park, a side street close to Film City Glasgow: our engineers drain the vehicle where it sits. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Glasgow Science Centre, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Riverside motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across Glasgow City.