Caernarfon: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page aside for now, leave the ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where your vehicle stands around Caernarfon, is normally what it needs if caught before your motor runs. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers how it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many current diesels on the roads round Caernarfon and Bontnewydd carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what cap it needs. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Caernarfon?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a drive off Stryd Pedwar a Chwech / Northgate Street before work, or in the car park at Medi on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: a new car.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, keeps on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Caernarfon or out in Waterloo Port.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Pont-rug or a forecourt around Caernarfon.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Llanfairpwll.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Gwynedd that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Stryd y Plas / Palace Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check again — confirm the diesel filler stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Discover at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Leave out stage five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Caernarfon?
Short order, then. Top of that: the motor remains unstarted. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
At a forecourt — Texaco, Morrisons or another — the staff will normally help push the vehicle away, when you ask. If you are on your own driveway in Caernarfon, leave the car where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. On the Moreton Spur, over 50 miles from Caernarfon, that means the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Caernarfon is less a job than a run of under 10 miles towards Bangor, and so tell us.
What takes place when our technicians turn up around Caernarfon
Outside the local primary school, near Pablo or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. What fluid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since those replies set the work and quote. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that counts 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. After your filter is cleaned — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel is added, and then your vehicle gets tested. Then our engineers fire it up and check it runs smoothly before we go.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Caernarfon itself
Caernarfon is a coastal town in northwest Wales, situated near the Menai Strait and overlooking the Isle of Anglesey. Caernarfon sits at a low elevation of around 14 metres, with its town centre and harbour area being key focal points. Caernarfon is located near several smaller communities, including Waterloo Port and Caeathro, and is close to the city of Bangor. Caernarfon has a mix of housing types, but terraced housing is predominant.
AdBlue drains in Caernarfon and across Gwynedd
Throughout LL postcodes, our teams that cover Caernarfon — a coastal town — work the surrounding places too, Llanfaglan and Caeathro included. A postcode starting LL55 1 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle stays where it is. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Porth Mawr, a lay-by on the way to Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls, a driveway. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Oriel Pendeitsh.
Caernarfon motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, anywhere across Gwynedd: keep the car off then call 0333 366 0103.