Bridgend: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause reading for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Bridgend. Reading before the event? Then the rest explains how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads round Bridgend and Glanpwllafon carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the 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.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Plenty of motors share a single flap for the two, while some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which cap it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Bridgend
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off B4546, or heading home in the car park at The Grosvenor.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: an unfamiliar car.
Nothing stops the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, be it in Cardigan or bang in the centre of Bridgend.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Llangoedmor or a forecourt around Bridgend, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you pick up a hire car or company car — at the nearest station's car park, say — not when the light appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Ceredigion that is.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Golwg-y-Castell.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Discover during the second or third step that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bridgend already?
Short order, then. Top of that: your engine stays unstarted. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
The staff at the nearest petrol station, Tesco or another forecourt will normally help pushing the car away when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Bridgend.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. The next exit means the place to leave if you are on the M4, under 50 miles from Bridgend. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards St Davids, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Bridgend.
When our engineers turn up around Bridgend, what happens?
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, near Aberteifi - Trevelin 2005 or on your own drive. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — which liquid, which amount, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. No one sets off before you have had our price over the phone.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Then our technicians start the engine and check it runs correctly before leaving.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Bridgend
Bridgend is a small suburban area in Ceredigion, situated on the Welsh coast at an elevation of around 25 metres. Bridgend lies near the towns of Cardigan and St Dogmaels, and is also close to Albro Castle. Bridgend has a population of approximately 1409 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Bridgend is located near the city of St Davids, which is around 29 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Bridgend and across Ceredigion
As a residential suburb, Bridgend shares its vans nearby areas — St Dogmaels, Albro Castle — all the way across SA postcodes and the wider area beyond. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SA43 3.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Kitchen Garden, a side street near Dwrgi Aberteifi / Teifi Otter: our technicians drain the car where it stands. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Teifi Gate, close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
For Bridgend motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, wherever in Ceredigion: switch the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.