Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ruchill
Pause here a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where the car sits in Ruchill, is usually all it takes if caught before the motor runs. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the motor — but plenty of current diesels driven about Ruchill and Gilshochill hold another liquid too. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Ruchill?
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Mayfield Street before work, or in the car park at The Viking on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: a new motor.
Nothing stops the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Firhill or the heart of Ruchill: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Lambhill or a forecourt in Ruchill.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark which goes in each inlet right there.
- Can't see it beside your diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Possilpark & Parkhouse? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, wherever in Glasgow City, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and not in a rush beside Bilsland Drive at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Stage five is out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Ruchill already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. Leave your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it alone starts your pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — Esso, BP or any other — the staff will normally help push your car away, if you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Ruchill, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Ruchill sits under 3 miles from the M8; on it, take the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Glasgow, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Ruchill.
Our arrival around Ruchill, and what occurs next
By the local primary school, close to Our Lady of the Assumption or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. No one sets off until you have heard our price over the phone.
Then the tank is drained and your system purged thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Next our technicians start it and confirm it runs smoothly before we go.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Ruchill itself
Ruchill is a suburban area in Glasgow City, situated near the River Kelvin and close to the neighbouring districts of Firhill, Wyndford, and North Kelvin. Ruchill sits at an elevation of 57 metres, approximately 2.2 miles northwest of Glasgow city centre. Ruchill is characterised by its predominantly flat-type housing, which accommodates a population of around 7490 residents.
Ruchill and Glasgow City: AdBlue drains across the area
As a residential suburb, Ruchill has the same vans as surrounding areas — Wyndford, North Kelvin — right across G postcodes and the wider area around them. Quickest of all: give a G20 9 postcode for the van.
Your car stays put. Anywhere it sits — beside Surf City, on a lay-by heading to Ruchill Park, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Ruchill Parish Church.
In short, for Ruchill motorists
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Glasgow City.