Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bontnewydd
Pause here for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the motor has not turned, it's emptied and thoroughly purged where the car is around Bontnewydd. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of modern diesels in Saron, as well as Bontnewydd, carry on two liquids; the motor takes just your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both together under one flap. Diesel gets filled at every filling station visit, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. It's in the gap that the error happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Bontnewydd?
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Dôl Beuno, or on the way home in the car park outside The Newborough Arms.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
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 pour once it has started. It's a few seconds, whether out in Llanfaglan or bang in the centre of Bontnewydd.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Caeathro or a forecourt in Bontnewydd.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many cars mark which goes in each inlet just there.
- The handbook shows which it is if your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Llanfairpwll? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in Gwynedd the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Cae Capel, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look again — confirm your diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. After that, start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Do not go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bontnewydd already?
Don't start the motor: that is how the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the Shell, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the pump. Your own driveway around Bontnewydd is the place it stays.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the Moreton Spur — over 50 miles out of Bontnewydd — at the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Bangor, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Bontnewydd.
When our engineers get there in Bontnewydd, what occurs?
By the local primary school, close to Gypsy Wood Family Fun Park or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because the answers determine the work and our quote. During the call itself, you are told the quote — before dispatch.
Then that tank is drained and the system rinsed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of that washes out unaided, no matter how long it sits. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. After that we fire it up and make sure it runs properly before we go.
Unrun vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Bontnewydd and where it is
Bontnewydd is a small coastal village in Gwynedd, situated near the Menai Strait and close to the Snowdonia National Park. Bontnewydd has a population of around 523 people and is characterized by its terraced housing. Bontnewydd is located near several other villages, including Llanfaglan, Dinas, and Llanwnda, and is approximately 9.7 miles from the city of Bangor.
AdBlue drains across Gwynedd, Bontnewydd included
Over LL postcodes, our vans that cover Bontnewydd — a coastal village — work the nearby spots too, Llanwnda and Dinas among them. A postcode starting LL55 2 gets the van to you fastest.
The car does not need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Cefn-y-coed, a side street near Yr Oval: our technicians drain the car where it is. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Gadlys, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
In short, for Bontnewydd people
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere across Gwynedd.