Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cefn
Pause reading a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the engine hasn't run, it's drained and thoroughly purged where the car sits in Cefn. 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.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many modern diesels around Mount Sion, as well as Cefn, carry on two liquids; your engine gets only your diesel. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
There's a filler on every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt call-out, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Cefn: how it happens
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Cross Lane before work, or in the car park outside Clayton Arms on the way home.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Brynteg or bang in the centre of Cefn.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Cefn forecourt or a drive over in Tanyfron, spend a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — many cars show what goes in which inlet just there.
- Can't find it next to the diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- 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 outside Gwersyllt.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Wrexham that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Long Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Finish once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through its own spout.
- Shut the cap, then look again — making sure the diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Do not go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Cefn already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so leave it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Shell, the Sainsbury's or anywhere else. On your own drive around Cefn? So the car remains put.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Cefn lies under 15 miles from the M53; on it, take the first exit. A short hop across Cefn is a smaller job than a run towards Wrexham, under 3 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Cefn: what takes place when our technicians get there
The van reaches the car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, near Stori Brymbo: Fossil Forest, or outside the local primary school. Which fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask because those replies decide the work and price. You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Next our engineers start the engine and check it runs correctly before we leave.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run need roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Cefn itself
Cefn is a suburban area located near Wrexham in northeast Wales, sitting at an elevation of around 195 metres. Cefn is characterised by its semi-detached housing and is situated close to nearby places such as Brynteg and Pentre Broughton. Cefn is a relatively small community with a population of approximately 2225 residents. Cefn is positioned about 2.4 miles from the centre of Wrexham, making it a convenient residential area for those working in the city.
Cefn and Wrexham: AdBlue drains across the area
Pentre Broughton and Moss are among the places near Cefn, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout LL postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting LL11 6.
No need to shift your car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Moss Valley Golf Course, a side street close to Stori Brymbo: we drain the car where it stands. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Summerhill Village Institute, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Cefn drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Wrexham, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.