Sheddens: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Stop reading a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where the vehicle stands around Sheddens, is usually what it needs when caught before your motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Sheddens and Busby carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. 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. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Sheddens: how it happens
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Victoria Crescent, or on the way home in the car park at Maxwells.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Stamperland or the middle of Sheddens, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Millerston or a forecourt in Sheddens.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show what belongs in which filler just there.
- The handbook shows where it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Clarkston? Ask the person who drove it last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around East Renfrewshire that is.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine off, and not rushed beside Summerhill Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Sheddens?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Keep your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels it alone starts the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
The attendants at BP, Esso or any forecourt will normally help to push your car clear when asked. Your own driveway around Sheddens is the place it stays.
Already run? Pull over when it is safe, then turn off. On the M77, under 3 miles from Sheddens, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Sheddens is smaller a job than a trip of under 10 miles towards Glasgow, and so tell us.
What takes place when our engineers turn up around Sheddens
The van comes to your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near St Joseph's Church, or by the local primary school. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — which liquid, which quantity, and if it's run — so we ask. During the call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of dispatch.
Then that tank is emptied and the system flushed 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 matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of the car. After that our engineers start it and confirm it runs smoothly before we go.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Sheddens itself
Sheddens is a suburban area situated on the riverside in East Renfrewshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Sheddens sits at an elevation of 93 metres, close to the nearby communities of Stamperland, Clarkston, and Williamwood. Sheddens is located near Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, which is approximately 5.5 miles away. Sheddens has a population of around 5319 people, making it a moderately sized suburban community.
Sheddens and East Renfrewshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Sheddens shares its vans nearby areas — Clarkston, Williamwood — all the way across G postcodes and the wider area around them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting G76 8.
There's no need to move your car. The drain happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a road near Clarkston Baptist Church, or a layby on the way to Overlee Park. Guessing won't help behind St Aidans Church, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
For Sheddens motorists, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in East Renfrewshire.