Crofty: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause reading for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. In Crofty, finding it before your engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Not one fluid but two: that is how many modern diesels near Crofty and Rallt run, with diesel for the engine. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Many of cars have a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at each filling station call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
Crofty: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Forge Road, or on the way home in the car park outside The Crofty Inn.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, carries on. Whether it occurs in Pen-caer-fenny or the middle of Crofty, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Crofty forecourt or a driveway over in Pen-clawdd, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On plenty of cars, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is when the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Bynea? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — anywhere you are around Swansea — a simple routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Chapel Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found the filler and read it.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Crofty already?
Short order, then. Top of that: your engine stays unstarted. Keep your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts your pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the North Road Service Station or the Esso, ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Crofty.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M4 — under 10 miles out of Crofty — at the first exit. A short hop across Crofty is a smaller job than a run towards Swansea, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Crofty, and what occurs next
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to Canoe Safari or on your own driveway. What liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask since those replies set the work and quote. You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The motor is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
If your 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. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Crofty and where it is
Crofty is a small coastal village in Swansea, situated near the shores of the Bristol Channel at an elevation of around 14 metres. Crofty lies approximately 8 miles west of Swansea city centre and is surrounded by nearby villages such as Pen-caer-fenny and Llanmorlais. Crofty has a population of around 959 people and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Crofty enjoys a scenic location with views out to sea and access to local amenities.
AdBlue drains across Swansea, Crofty included
Over SA postcodes, the vans that cover Crofty — a coastal village — work the surrounding locations too, Wernffrwd and Llanmorlais among them. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SA4 3.
Your car stays put. Wherever it stands — near Water Lab, on a layby en route to Forest Common, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Reed Warbler Nest? Close to a border? Asking beats assuming, and so ring.
Crofty motorists: the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Swansea.