Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Townhead: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Townhead. Here in advance? Then the rest explains how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one fluid but two: that is how many modern diesels around Townhead and Cowcaddens run, with diesel for the engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
There's a filler on each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It is in that gap that the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Townhead
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off St James Road before work, or in the car park outside The Howgait on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
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. Glasgow or the heart of Townhead: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these first, on a forecourt in Townhead or a drive over in St Enochs. Seconds, that's all.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On many cars, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- The handbook says where it lives when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check as you collect a rental or company car — from High Street's car park, perhaps — rather than once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light appears — anywhere it is in Glasgow City — a routine to use.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Weaver Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Finish when your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly using its own spout.
- 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 the bottle went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Never carry on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Townhead?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Shell, BP or another forecourt will usually help to push the vehicle away when asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Townhead.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M8 — under a mile out of Townhead — at the first junction. Distance matters — a short hop across Townhead is a smaller job than driving under a mile towards Glasgow — so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we arrive around Townhead, what takes place?
Wherever the car has stopped, be it by the local primary school, near William Annan Fountain or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Those answers decide this work and our price, so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run. Nobody heads out until you have heard the quote over the phone.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel 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. Filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. We do not go until it has been started and is running properly.
If the motor hasn't 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 after dark. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Townhead, for a moment
Townhead is a suburban area located on the riverside in Glasgow City, with a mix of old and new buildings, including predominantly flat-style housing. Townhead sits at an elevation of 41 metres, close to the city centre of Glasgow, and is nearby to other areas such as Merchant City and Royston. Townhead is home to a population of approximately 11971 residents, who live in close proximity to the amenities of Glasgow. Townhead's location makes it a convenient place to live for those working in the city.
AdBlue drains around Townhead and across Glasgow City
Merchant City and Royston are among the towns around Townhead, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over G postcodes. A postcode starting G4 0 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle does not need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Saint Nicholas Garden, a side street close to Destiny Church: we drain the vehicle where it stands. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of University of Strathclyde Library, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for Townhead people
Before you pour, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it stands, anywhere around Glasgow City: switch the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.