Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Coedhirwaun
Pause reading a minute when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Coedhirwaun, catching it before the engine turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel goes to your motor — but plenty of current diesels seen round Coedhirwaun and Kenfig Hill carry another fluid too. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where a spray treats the gas.
Every tank has one filler of its own. 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 pump happens constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what cap it needs. It's in that gap that the error happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Coedhirwaun
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Cwm Cadno before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Nothing halts the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Pen-y-bryn or the middle of Coedhirwaun, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Cwrt-y-defaid or a forecourt in Coedhirwaun.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many vehicles mark which belongs in which filler just there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Pyle, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever across Neath Port Talbot, use this routine.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Llwyn Arian.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop when your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently using its built-in spout.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is out.
Coedhirwaun: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the Asda or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Coedhirwaun.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit means the place to leave when you're on the M4, under 3 miles from Coedhirwaun. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Coedhirwaun makes a smaller job than heading under 15 miles to Swansea — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Coedhirwaun, and what occurs next
Outside the local primary school, near Church of St James or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Those replies determine this work and the price, so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run. The quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then your tank is cleared and the system rinsed thoroughly. 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 the flush counts more here than with petrol. Filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of your vehicle. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of 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 after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Coedhirwaun, briefly
Coedhirwaun is a small village in Neath Port Talbot, situated near the coast and approximately 11.5 miles from Swansea. Coedhirwaun sits at an elevation of 51 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Coedhirwaun is close to nearby places such as Pen-y-bryn and Eglwys Nunydd, and is part of the wider Swansea Bay area.
AdBlue drains across Neath Port Talbot, Coedhirwaun included
Throughout SA postcodes, the vans covering Coedhirwaun — a coastal village — work the surrounding places too, Pyle and Eglwys Nunydd included. A postcode starting SA13 2 gets the van to you fastest.
The car does not need to shift. Wherever it sits — near Pyle Library, on a layby en route to Caeaugleision, at home — that's where it is cleared. Guessing won't help at the back of Heathbridge Miners' Square, on a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
For Coedhirwaun people, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Neath Port Talbot, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.