Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Brynna: Why It Happens
Pause reading a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your engine has not turned, it is emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle sits around Brynna. Not happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it happens and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of current diesels on the roads round Brynna and Dolau 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.
There is a filler on each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Brynna: how it takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Williams Street, perhaps outside The Mountain Hare on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's the second thing: a strange car.
Third, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and once the tip starts, no part stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Brynna or out in Bryncae.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Llanharan or a forecourt around Brynna.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you collect a hire car or company car — from Llanharan's car park, perhaps — not when the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever around Rhondda Cynon Taf the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Southall Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Brynna?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting the motor. Leave the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it by itself starts the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or the Texaco, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway in Brynna, leave the vehicle where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. The next junction is the place to leave if you are on the M4, under 3 miles from Brynna. Distance matters — a short hop across Brynna is a smaller job than heading under 15 miles towards Cardiff — so say roughly how far it went.
What happens when we get there in Brynna
Anywhere the car has stopped, be it by the local primary school, beside Bryncae Community Centre or at home, our van comes to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run, since the replies decide the work and our quote. You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the 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 does not wash out on its own. A test is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. We don't go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run need roughly half an hour once our engineers are there. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Brynna itself
Brynna is a village situated in the Rhondda Cynon Taf county of Wales, located near the riverside at an elevation of 83 metres. Brynna is close to the nearby villages of Bryncae and Brynnau Gwynion, and is approximately 13 miles from Cardiff. Brynna has a population of around 1202 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains in Brynna and across Rhondda Cynon Taf
Throughout CF postcodes, the teams that cover Brynna — a village — work the nearby spots too, Llanbad and Brynnau Gwynion among them. Give a postcode that starts CF72 9, and our van arrives fastest.
No need to shift the car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Brynna Woods, a side street near Holistic Sports: our technicians drain the car where it sits. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Llanilid Church? By a border? Checking is better than assuming, and so phone.
Brynna motorists: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Rhondda Cynon Taf.