Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Braichmelyn
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, keep the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Around Braichmelyn, catching it before the motor runs normally means a drain and a full flush where it stands. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Braichmelyn and Bontuchaf carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to 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 one filler of its own. Many of cars have a single flap for both, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Braichmelyn: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Rhes Jams before work, or in the car park outside Douglas Arms on the way home.
Then the car 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.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, keeps on. Whether it takes place in Pant or the middle of Braichmelyn, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt around Braichmelyn or a drive out in Bethesda. A few seconds, that's all.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of motors show which goes in which inlet just there.
- The handbook shows which it lives if your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Bangor (Gwynedd)? Ask the person who drove the car last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is around Gwynedd — a simple routine to use.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Tan Gadlas.
- 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 remains on. Where both share a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — confirm the diesel filler remained closed throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
Find during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Stage five is off limits.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Braichmelyn?
Don't start your engine: that is how the short order of things starts. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. AdBlue does not 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 thin it.
The attendants at EG Garages, Calor or any forecourt will usually help to push the vehicle clear when asked. On your own drive in Braichmelyn? Then your car remains where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit is the place to come off when you are on the Moreton Spur, under 50 miles from Braichmelyn. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Bangor, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Braichmelyn.
Our arrival around Braichmelyn, and what happens next
The van comes to your car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Zip World Penrhyn Quarry, or outside the local primary school. Our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run, since those answers settle the work and our price. The price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away by itself. That is why it counts more. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Braichmelyn itself
Braichmelyn is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Gwynedd, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a population of around 1581 residents. Braichmelyn sits at an elevation of 165 metres, close to the nearby cities and towns of Bangor, Pant, Gerlan, and Gwernydd. Braichmelyn is located near the Menai Strait, with the Snowdonia National Park to the south. Braichmelyn remains a residential community on the outskirts of Bangor, approximately 4.8 miles from the city centre.
AdBlue drains in Braichmelyn and across Gwynedd
Braichmelyn is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, Gerlan and Gwernydd among them, across the LL postcode area. A postcode starting LL57 3 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving the car isn't necessary. The drain takes place right there, be it a driveway, a road by War Memorial, or a layby towards Braich Melyn. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Christ Church? By a county line? Checking beats assuming, and so phone.
Braichmelyn people: the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Gwynedd, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.