AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Caerau Park: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down for now, leave the ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where your vehicle stands around Caerau Park, is usually what it takes if caught before the engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many newer diesels on the roads around Caerau Park and Ridgeway carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each forecourt visit, again and again. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think which filler it needs. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Caerau Park
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
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 drive off Oakfield Road before work, or in the car park outside The Handpost Hotel on the way home.
New-to-you vehicles are second, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company cars put their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing stops the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Stow Park or the middle of Caerau Park: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in St Woolos or a forecourt in Caerau Park.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On plenty of motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show what goes in which inlet right there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Newport (South Wales)? Ask whoever drove it last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere across Newport the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Manley Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once that tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently through the own spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Stage five stays off limits.
Caerau Park: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your engine: that is where the short order of things starts. Leave your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts your fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Asda, Tesco or another forecourt will usually help pushing your car clear when asked. If you're on your own drive in Caerau Park, leave the vehicle where it stands.
When your motor has run by now, pull over safely and switch the vehicle off. Caerau Park sits under a mile from the M4; there, use the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Caerau Park is less work than a trip of under a mile to Newport, and so say.
What takes place when our technicians arrive around Caerau Park
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to St. John the Baptist Church or on your own driveway. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — what fluid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. Nobody sets off until you have heard the quote over the phone.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of that washes out unaided, no matter how long it is left. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of your car. Your engine is started next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Caerau Park, briefly
Caerau Park is a suburban area located near the city of Newport in Wales, situated close to the coast at an elevation of 68 metres. Caerau Park is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, reflecting the typical residential development of the region. Caerau Park sits in close proximity to nearby places such as Stow Park and Clytha Park, and is just a short distance from the city centre of Newport.
AdBlue drains across Newport, Caerau Park included
Stelvio and Clytha Park are among the towns around Caerau Park, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over NP postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting NP20 4.
The vehicle remains put. Draining takes place right there, be it a drive, a street near Lady Rhondda, or a layby on the way to The Shrubbery Conservation Area. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Cwtsh Arts Centre, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Caerau Park motorists, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Newport, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.