Bedwas: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause reading a minute when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around Bedwas, catching it before your engine turns usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. If you are 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 car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of current diesels on the roads around Bedwas and Castle Park carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Many of vehicles have a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt call-out, again and again. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bedwas: how it occurs
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Church Street, or outside The Bridge End Inn on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: an unfamiliar motor.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as readily, and once the tip begins, no part stops it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Bedwas or out in Mornington Meadows.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Bedwas forecourt or a driveway out in Pwllypant, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Energlyn & Churchill Park? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Caerphilly that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Golwg-yr-Eglwys, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap was never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Stage five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bedwas?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. Keep your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts your pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the Morrisons or somewhere else. If you are on your own driveway in Bedwas, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Bedwas lies under 5 miles from the M4; there, use the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Cardiff, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Bedwas.
When we turn up around Bedwas, what happens?
Our van reaches your car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, near Bedwas Theatre Group Community Hall, or outside the local primary school. Those replies determine this work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears out on its own, no matter how long it is left. After the fuel filter is flushed — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle gets tested. After that we fire it up and confirm it runs correctly before we leave.
Unrun vehicles usually need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Bedwas
Bedwas is a village situated on the banks of the Rhymney River in south Wales, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Bedwas lies close to the nearby communities of Mornington Meadows, Trethomas, and Lansbury Park, and is approximately 7.8 miles from Cardiff. Bedwas has a population of around 2576 people and is located at an elevation of 67 metres above sea level. Bedwas is also within commuting distance of major cities, including Cardiff and, further afield, London.
AdBlue drains in Bedwas and across Caerphilly
Being a village, Bedwas shares its vans surrounding areas — Trethomas, Lansbury Park — right across CF postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting CF83 8.
Your car stays where it is. Anywhere it stands — near Bedwas Pentecostal Church, on a lay-by en route to Bedwas Park, at home — that is where it is drained. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Bedwas Cenotaph.
For Bedwas people, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Caerphilly.