Churchill Park: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep your engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when the motor hasn't run, it is drained and thoroughly rinsed where the car sits in Churchill Park. Reading in advance? In that case what follows covers how it happens and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that is how many newer diesels around Churchill Park and Trecenydd carry, with diesel for the motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in at each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Churchill Park?
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Dylan Drive before work, or in the car park outside Pontygwindy Alehouse heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: a new car.
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. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Churchill Park or out in Energlyn.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Churchill Park forecourt or a drive over in Denscombe, take a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- On plenty of motors, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you collect a hire car or company car — at Energlyn & Churchill Park's car park, perhaps — not when the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere in Caerphilly, use this routine.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Islwyn Drive.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- Both under a single flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel side is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Leave out step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Churchill Park already?
Short list, then. Top of it: the motor remains off. Leave the ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on by itself starts the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Asda, the Texaco or anywhere else. At home around Churchill Park? So the vehicle stays put.
Already started? Pull over when it's safe, then switch off. On the M4, under 3 miles from Churchill Park, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Churchill Park is smaller a job than a trip of under 10 miles to Cardiff, so tell us.
What takes place when we arrive in Churchill Park
Wherever your car has stopped, be it outside the local primary school, near St Helen’s Roman Catholic Church or at home, our van travels to it. Those answers decide this work and our price, and so our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run. You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or changed as needed. The engine is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before we head off.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our engineers get there, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Churchill Park itself
Churchill Park is a suburban area located on the riverside in Caerphilly, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Churchill Park sits at an elevation of 89 metres, close to the nearby communities of Energlyn, Pwllypant, and Penyrheol. Churchill Park is situated near Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, and is within commuting distance of the city centre. Churchill Park has a population of around 4846 residents, living in a predominantly suburban environment.
AdBlue drains about Churchill Park, and Caerphilly beyond
Pwllypant and Penyrheol are among the towns around Churchill Park, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout CF postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a CF83 3 postcode to our van.
The vehicle remains where it is. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Saint Catherine's Church Hall, a lay-by on the way to Energlyn Sidings, a drive. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Saint Catherine's Church.
The short version for Churchill Park people
First, the cap; after that, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Caerphilly.