Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Culverhouse Cross
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, keep the ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where the car stands in Culverhouse Cross, is normally what it takes when found before the motor runs. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to the engine — but plenty of newer diesels driven about Culverhouse Cross and Wallston carry another fluid too. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for both, while some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It's in that gap that the mistake happens.
Culverhouse Cross: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Emerson Drive before work, or in the car park outside Coopers Carvery on the way home.
New-to-you vehicles are second, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company motors place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and once the tip starts, nothing stops it. Whether it takes place in Cyntwell or the middle of Culverhouse Cross, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Culverhouse Cross or a driveway over in Ely. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of cars show what goes in which filler just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — at Waun-Gron Park's car park, say — not once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere in Cardiff, follow this routine.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Thorne Way.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Stop once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Culverhouse Cross?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at Tesco, Esso or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle away if asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Culverhouse Cross.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. The next junction is the place to leave when you're on the M4, under 5 miles from Culverhouse Cross. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Cardiff, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Culverhouse Cross.
What occurs when our engineers arrive around Culverhouse Cross
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, close to War Memorial or on your own driveway. Which fluid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask since those answers set the work and price. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, once the tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away unaided. Hence it counts more. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run need roughly half an hour after our engineers are there. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Culverhouse Cross, for a moment
Culverhouse Cross is a suburban area located inland, approximately 3.6 miles from Cardiff city centre, with an elevation of around 59 metres. Culverhouse Cross sits near the communities of Cyntwell, Caerau, and Michaelston-super-Ely, and is characterized by predominantly semi-detached housing. Culverhouse Cross is home to a population of around 4704 residents, and is situated within the wider Cardiff urban area.
AdBlue drains around Culverhouse Cross, and Cardiff beyond
Being a residential suburb, Culverhouse Cross has the same vans as nearby places — Caerau, Michaelston-super-Ely — all the way across CF postcodes and the wider area around them. A postcode starting CF5 5 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Caerau Lane Park, a side street near Caerau Hillfort: our engineers drain the vehicle where it sits. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Dusty Forge, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for Culverhouse Cross drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Cardiff, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off then call 0333 366 0103.