AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Coed-Pen-Maen: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. In Coed-Pen-Maen, catching it before your motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Reading in advance? Then what follows covers why it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels around Graigwen, like those in Coed-Pen-Maen, run on two liquids; your engine takes only the diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Coed-Pen-Maen
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up together.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Bonvilston Road, or heading home in the car park outside Central Hotel.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, keeps on. Trallwn or the middle of Coed-Pen-Maen: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Penygraigwen or a forecourt around Coed-Pen-Maen, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook shows where it lives when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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 Pontypridd.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Rhondda Cynon Taf that is.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside The Parade at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two sit under a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly using the own spout.
- Close the cap, and check once more — confirm the diesel filler stayed shut throughout. After that, start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Coed-Pen-Maen already?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
At a forecourt — Sainsbury's, Asda or another — the attendants will usually help roll the vehicle clear, if you ask. If you're on your own drive in Coed-Pen-Maen, leave the car where it sits.
Already started? Pull over when it's safe, then switch off. The next exit is the place to leave if you are on the M4, under 10 miles from Coed-Pen-Maen. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Cardiff, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Coed-Pen-Maen.
Our arrival around Coed-Pen-Maen, and what takes place next
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it by the local primary school, near Trallwn Community Centre or on your own drive, our van comes to it. What liquid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask since the answers decide the work and price. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away by itself. Hence it counts more. After the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and then your vehicle gets tested. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Unrun vehicles usually mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Coed-Pen-Maen, briefly
Coed-Pen-Maen is a suburban area in Rhondda Cynon Taf, situated near the River Taff at an elevation of around 75 metres. Coed-Pen-Maen lies close to the nearby communities of Trallwn and Pontypridd, and is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock. Coed-Pen-Maen is located approximately 11 miles north of Cardiff, making it a commuter base for the city.
AdBlue drains about Coed-Pen-Maen, and Rhondda Cynon Taf beyond
Coed-Pen-Maen is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Pont Sion Norton and Pontypridd among them, across the CF postcode area. A postcode starting CF37 4 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to shift the car. We drain it where it is — a side street near Coedpenmain English Baptist Church, a lay-by on the way to Pontsionnorton Park, a drive. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Welsh Regimental War Memorial, close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
The short version for Coed-Pen-Maen drivers
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Rhondda Cynon Taf.