AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Whiteinch? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The trouble starts once it's sucked through the pump — it won't ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. Caught before the motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Whiteinch. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Whiteinch: the first few minutes
Do:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, take the keys out.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting G14 9, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Moving your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the moment your ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way up Squire Street.
- Beside the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle off the island if you are at a forecourt in Whiteinch, whether it is the Esso or elsewhere. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the gases. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same place the intake draws from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Jordanhill overnight and hasn't turned since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of that tank, undrawn — but it will be the first thing through once the motor runs, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm come from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. By daybreak, a car sitting in Whiteinch with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it is only in the tank, nothing changes. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water gives none of that, and that is a separate form of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
An issue of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the BP. Damage only comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside that tank, it does nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable liquid. It cannot simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Thornwood or the middle of Whiteinch.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Anywhere in Glasgow City the vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the simplest part of a fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Whiteinch
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside the local primary school the top-up is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Dumbarton Road. Otherwise, after dark outside Granny Gibbs, your car is refilled by a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least familiar cars get it most — hire cars, new ones, company cars, and the other vehicle of a family with one of each fuel types. Leave it switched off: that's the first response to an identical mistake, wherever around Whiteinch or the rest of Glasgow City you are.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Whiteinch, and the motor started?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It has been drawn through the fuel filter and the lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Watch for rough running, smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — returning from Squire Street Commons, say, or part way across Whiteinch. Stop when safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M8, under 3 miles from Whiteinch, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Distance matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system, so heading towards Glasgow, under 5 miles away, makes a much bigger job than hopping across Whiteinch to the car park by The Salvation Army - Glasgow West. Tell us about how far it had come.
There is more to rinse out once your engine has been started, and our engineers do all of it where your car has ended up. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage if it's caught soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Whiteinch?
Wherever it has come to rest around Whiteinch — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a street beside St Paul's RC Church — the van travels to the vehicle. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether the motor has been run, because those replies decide this work.
Next, emptying the tank right there removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is cleaned right through since residue will not wash out by itself. A test of the car comes at the end, after fresh diesel goes in and the filter is cleaned or, where needed, replaced. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, provided your engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Bleeding your system with new diesel comes last. Then our engineers fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Jordanhill or a drive around Whiteinch. Our technicians check it runs correctly on fresh diesel before we go. No workshop is required at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Whiteinch and where it is
Whiteinch is a suburban area in Glasgow City, situated on the north bank of the River Clyde at a low elevation of around 8 metres. Whiteinch lies approximately 3.8 miles west of Glasgow city centre, near the neighbouring areas of Broomhill, Shieldhall, and Linthouse. Whiteinch is predominantly composed of flat-type housing, which accommodates a population of around 5592 residents.
AdBlue drains across Glasgow City, Whiteinch included
Our teams that answer AdBlue calls around Whiteinch also cover the locations round it, Broomhill, Shieldhall and Linthouse among them, and most of Glasgow City beyond, across the G postcode area. Phone and check rather than guess if you are close to a county line, or anywhere tricky to explain.
No towing is needed. In Whiteinch, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: your vehicle is emptied where it stands, whether on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Whiteinch: the cost of fixing it
There is no honest single price, because the jobs are not the same. What changes the price is, firstly, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind War Memorial.
With that in mind, each call from Whiteinch begins with the same trio — which fluid went in, how much, if it ran — before a quote. With them, a range narrows to a single firm figure.
The price is given during the call, before anyone sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is on the way, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
Still alongside your car in Whiteinch?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the best move you can do. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Whiteinch or anywhere in Glasgow City, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran.