How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Abertridwr
Stop reading a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Abertridwr. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the engine — but plenty of current diesels seen about Abertridwr and Hendredenny carry another liquid as well. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Abertridwr
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off The Square, or heading home in the car park at the pub in the village.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: an unfamiliar vehicle.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and after the pour starts, nothing halts it. It takes seconds, whether out in Senghenydd or bang in the heart of Abertridwr.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Penyrheol or a forecourt around Abertridwr.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Llanbradach, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever around Caerphilly the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of High Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Abertridwr already?
Do not start your motor: that's how the short order of things begins. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Tesco, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle clear when asked. If you're on your own driveway in Abertridwr, leave the car where it sits.
Already started? Pull over when it's sensible, then switch off. The next exit means where to come off if you're on the M4, under 5 miles from Abertridwr. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Abertridwr is less a job than a trip of under 10 miles to Cardiff, so tell us.
Our arrival in Abertridwr, and what takes place next
By the local primary school, close to Abertridwr Community Church or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — which fluid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. No one sets off until you've had the price by phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. 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. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of the car. Next our engineers fire it up and check it runs correctly before leaving.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run need roughly half an hour once we arrive. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Abertridwr, briefly
Abertridwr is a village in Caerphilly, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 141 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Abertridwr lies approximately 9 miles north of Cardiff and 135 miles west of London, making it a commuter village for the nearby city. Abertridwr is surrounded by nearby places such as Senghenydd, Parc Mawr, and Hendredenny Park, which are all part of the wider Caerphilly landscape. Abertridwr has a population of around 2856 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains across Caerphilly, Abertridwr included
As a village, Abertridwr shares its vans surrounding places — Parc Mawr, Hendredenny Park — right across CF postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting CF83 4.
There's no need to move the car. Anywhere it sits — near Abertridwr Library, in a lay-by en route to Coed Ty'n-y-parc, on a drive — that is where it is cleared. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Senghenydd Mining Disaster Memorial.
In short, for Abertridwr motorists
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep it switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Caerphilly.