Cosmeston: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, keep your ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where your car stands in Cosmeston, is normally what it needs if found before your engine runs. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it takes place and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels in Morristown, like those in Cosmeston, run on two fluids; the engine takes just your diesel. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler to use. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Cosmeston?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Cosmeston Drive, or at Old Penarthians on the way home that evening.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Whether it occurs in Lower Penarth or the middle of Cosmeston, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Swanbridge or a forecourt in Cosmeston.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel inlet? In that case check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says which.
- 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 at Penarth.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere around The Vale of Glamorgan the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Falcon Grove, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Finish once your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip slowly through the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Cosmeston already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Leave the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts the pump. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the Tesco, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump. At home around Cosmeston? Then the vehicle stays put.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M4, under 10 miles from Cosmeston, that means the next junction. A short hop across Cosmeston is a smaller job than a run towards Cardiff, under 5 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when our technicians get there in Cosmeston
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, whether by the local primary school, near Lower Penarth Community Centre or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — what liquid, which quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. Nobody sets off before you've heard our price over the phone.
Then your tank is drained and the system flushed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out unaided. That is why it matters more. Filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the car. We don't leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If the engine hasn't 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 after dark. No money upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Cosmeston itself
Cosmeston is a coastal suburban area in the Vale of Glamorgan, situated near the city of Cardiff and overlooking the Bristol Channel. Cosmeston sits at a low elevation of around 12 metres, with its detached housing stock reflecting the area's relatively affluent character. Cosmeston is close to several nearby places, including Lower Penarth, Lavernock, and Cog, and is within easy reach of Cardiff's amenities.
AdBlue drains in Cosmeston and across The Vale of Glamorgan
Lavernock and Cog are among the towns around Cosmeston, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over CF postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting CF64 5.
Shifting your car is not necessary. We drain it where it is — a side street near Cosmeston Medieval Village, a lay-by on the way to Downs Wood, a drive. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Boars Head.
For Cosmeston drivers, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in The Vale of Glamorgan, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.