Thornwood: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause reading for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where your vehicle sits in Thornwood, is normally all it needs when caught before your engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Thornwood and Dowanhill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. 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 filled at the pump all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Thornwood
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
On a driveway off Dumbarton Road before work, or in the car park at The Rosevale on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
Lastly, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and once the tip starts, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Thornwood or out in Broomhill.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Thornwood or a driveway out in Hyndland. Seconds, no more.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you collect a rental or fleet car — from Partick's car park, perhaps — not once the warning appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere around Glasgow City, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and not rushed by Exeter Drive at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Leave out step five entirely.
Thornwood: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start the engine: that's how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Esso, ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway in Thornwood, leave it where it is.
Already started? Stop once it's sensible, then turn off. Come off the M8 — under 3 miles out of Thornwood — at the first exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Thornwood makes a smaller job than driving under 5 miles to Glasgow — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Thornwood, and what occurs next
Outside the local primary school, near Partick Methodist Church or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because the answers decide this work and the quote. You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. The engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before we head off.
If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Thornwood and where it is
Thornwood is a suburban area located on the riverside in Glasgow City, with a relatively low elevation of around 10 metres. Thornwood sits near the banks of the River Kelvin, close to the neighbouring areas of Broomhill, Partick, and Partickhill. Thornwood is predominantly composed of flat-type housing, which is typical of many suburban areas in Glasgow. Thornwood is situated approximately 3.1 miles from Glasgow city centre, making it a popular residential choice.
AdBlue drains around Thornwood, and Glasgow City beyond
Partick and Partickhill are among the places around Thornwood, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout G postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts G11 6, and the van arrives fastest.
Shifting the vehicle isn't necessary. Anywhere it stands — near Partick Baptist Church, in a layby heading to Thornwood Park, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Partick Free Church.
The short version for Thornwood motorists
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere across Glasgow City.