Whitehaugh: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where your car sits around Whitehaugh, is normally what it takes when caught before the engine 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 motor, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to your motor — but many modern diesels seen about Whitehaugh and Seedhill carry a second liquid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two side by side under one flap. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It is in that gap that the mistake happens.
Whitehaugh: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
On a driveway off Avondale Drive before work, or in the car park at Harvies Bar on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: a new motor.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Gallowhill or right in the heart of Whitehaugh.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Whitehaugh or a driveway out in Laigh Park. A few seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Hawkhead? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are across Renfrewshire — a routine to use.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Barshaw Drive.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Step five is off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Whitehaugh?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the Shell, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway around Whitehaugh, leave the car where it sits.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M8, under a mile from Whitehaugh, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Whitehaugh is less work than a run of under 10 miles to Glasgow, so say.
When our technicians turn up in Whitehaugh, what happens?
Anywhere your car has stopped, whether outside the local primary school, near Arthur Allison Memorial Hall or at home, our van travels to it. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask since the answers decide both work and quote. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Then that tank is drained and the system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel is added, and finally the car gets tested. After that we fire it up and check it runs properly before we go.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after we get there, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Whitehaugh
Whitehaugh is a suburban area in Renfrewshire, situated approximately 6.5 miles west of Glasgow. Whitehaugh sits at a low elevation of around 20 metres, in the gently sloping landscape of the Scottish inland. Whitehaugh is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing, which accommodates a population of around 5367 residents. Whitehaugh is close to nearby places such as Gallowhill, Ralston, and Williamsburgh.
AdBlue drains in Whitehaugh and across Renfrewshire
Ralston and Williamsburgh are among the places near Whitehaugh, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout PA postcodes. Fastest of all: give a PA1 3 postcode for our van.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. We drain it where it is — a side street near Sherwood Parish Church, a lay-by on the way to Kelburne Cricket Club, a drive. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Nature Corner, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Whitehaugh motorists: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Renfrewshire.