AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Blackwood: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
Pause reading a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Around Blackwood, finding it before the engine turns normally leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's how many newer diesels around Blackwood and Cwm Gelli run, with diesel feeding your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both together behind one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which cap to use. It is in that gap that the error happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Blackwood: how it takes place
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Cefn Road, or heading home in the car park at The New Foresters.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: an unfamiliar car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Blackwood or out in Woodfieldside.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Pontllanfraith or a forecourt around Blackwood.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you collect a rental or fleet car — at Pengam's car park, say — rather than when the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — wherever you are around Caerphilly — a routine to follow.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Wesley Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It seems silly. It works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Step five stays out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Blackwood?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Leave your ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on by itself runs your fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Asda, Texaco or any other — the staff will usually help push your car away, when you ask. If you're on your own drive around Blackwood, leave the vehicle where it stands.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M4, under 10 miles from Blackwood, that means the next exit. A short hop across Blackwood is a smaller job than a run towards Newport, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Blackwood: what happens when our technicians arrive
Outside the local primary school, near Chartist Rebellion 1839 or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Those answers settle the work and the quote, so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, once the tank is emptied. 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. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Blackwood itself
Blackwood is a town situated in the Caerphilly county borough of Wales, located on the banks of a river at an elevation of around 170 metres. Blackwood lies approximately 10 miles north of Newport and is surrounded by nearby communities such as Woodfieldside, Penmaen, and Cefn Fforest. Blackwood has a population of around 16,384 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Blackwood is also relatively distant from London, being around 132 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Blackwood and across Caerphilly
Being a riverside town, Blackwood shares its vans surrounding areas — Penmaen, Cefn Fforest — all the way through NP postcodes and the wider area beyond. Fastest of all: quote a NP12 1 postcode for our van.
The car does not need to move. Wherever it stands — near The Little Theatre, on a layby heading to Libanus Fields, at home — that's where it gets emptied. Tricky to explain, like the back of Blackwood Civil and Family Court? Close to a county line? Asking is better than guessing, so ring.
The short version for Blackwood people
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Caerphilly.