Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cefn Golau
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your motor has not run, it's emptied and thoroughly purged where your vehicle is in Cefn Golau. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — but plenty of current diesels driven around Cefn Golau and Sirhowy hold another fluid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. 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. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what cap it needs. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Cefn Golau: how it takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Attlee Close, or heading home in the car park outside The Bush Ironsides.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: an unfamiliar car.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, keeps on. Whether it takes place in Tredegar or the middle of Cefn Golau, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Cefn Golau forecourt or a drive out in Scwrfa, spend a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- Can't find it next to your diesel filler? In that case look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook will say which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Rhymney.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere you are across Blaenau Gwent — a simple routine to follow.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush beside Cripps Avenue at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two sit under a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look once more — making sure your diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Skip stage five entirely.
Cefn Golau: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting the motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Gulf, the Texaco or somewhere else. On your own drive around Cefn Golau? So the vehicle stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M4, under 25 miles from Cefn Golau, that means the next exit. A short hop across Cefn Golau is a smaller job than a run towards Newport, under 25 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What occurs when we get there around Cefn Golau
The van reaches the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, beside Saron Congregational Church, or by the local primary school. Those answers decide this work and our quote, so we ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. You get that quote by phone, before anybody sets off.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your 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. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where required — clean diesel is added, and finally the vehicle gets tested. Next our technicians fire it up and check it runs smoothly before we go.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Cefn Golau itself
Cefn Golau is a suburban area situated in the county of Blaenau Gwent, within the inland region of south Wales. Cefn Golau sits at an elevation of 373 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Cefn Golau is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, and is located near the towns of Tredegar and Georgetown. Cefn Golau is approximately 16.6 miles from the city of Newport, and is home to a population of around 2677 residents.
AdBlue drains across Blaenau Gwent, Cefn Golau included
As a residential suburb, Cefn Golau has the same vans as nearby areas — Georgetown, Ashvale — right through NP postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting NP22 3 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a road by The Block of Coal, or a lay-by on the way to Bedwellty House & Park. Assuming doesn't help behind Bedwellty Park Bowling Club, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
Cefn Golau drivers: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Blaenau Gwent.