Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Buarth Mawr: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, leave the ignition and motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your engine has not run, it's drained and fully purged where the vehicle is around Buarth Mawr. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the engine — yet many modern diesels driven about Buarth Mawr and Caeffynnon carry another fluid too. 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's a filler for every tank. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in Buarth Mawr?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Emily Road, perhaps at Yr Hen Orsaf on the way home after work.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits 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. So the tip, after started, carries on. Aberystwyth or the heart of Buarth Mawr: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Penparcau or a forecourt in Buarth Mawr, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Many motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it beside your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you collect a rental or fleet car — at Aberystwyth's car park, perhaps — not when the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever in Ceredigion, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Stanley Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Both behind one flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel side is still shut before raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — making sure your diesel cap remained shut the whole time. After that, start your car.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Buarth Mawr?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Texaco or the Morrisons, ask the staff to help roll your car away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Buarth Mawr.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit is where to leave when you are on the M4, under 50 miles from Buarth Mawr. Distance matters — a short hop across Buarth Mawr makes a smaller job than driving over 50 miles towards Swansea — so say roughly how far it went.
What takes place when our technicians get there around Buarth Mawr
Outside the local primary school, close to Holy Trinity Church or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. What fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask since the answers set the work and price. That price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
After that: a drain, 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, and so it does not wash out on its own. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. We don't go until it has been started and is running properly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Buarth Mawr
Buarth Mawr is a coastal suburban area in Ceredigion, situated near the towns of Aberystwyth and Trefechan. Buarth Mawr lies at a low elevation of around 9 metres, close to the sea and the nearby communities of Penglais. Buarth Mawr has a mix of housing types, but terraced houses are particularly prevalent in the area. Buarth Mawr is located some distance from major cities, with Swansea being the nearest city at around 55 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Buarth Mawr and across Ceredigion
Throughout SY postcodes, our vans that cover Buarth Mawr — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Penglais and Trefechan included. Quickest of all: quote a SY23 1 postcode for our van.
The vehicle stays put. Anywhere it sits — near Aberystwyth University, School of Art Museum and Galleries, on a lay-by en route to Plascrug Avenue, at home — that is where it gets cleared. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Marks & Spencer.
The short version for Buarth Mawr people
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere across Ceredigion.