Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cwmfelin
Leave the motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Around Cwmfelin, finding it before the engine turns usually means draining and a full flush where it stands. Here in advance? Then the rest covers why it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels on the roads about Cwmfelin and Troedyrhiw carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the fumes.
There's a filler on every tank. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two side by side under one flap. Filling the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Cwmfelin: how it takes place
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Garth Terrace, or heading home in the car park outside The Bedlinog Inn.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
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. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Cwmfelin or out in Bedlinog.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Cwmfelin forecourt or a driveway out in Taff Merthyr Garden Village, spend a few seconds on these before any goes in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On many cars, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or company car — from Merthyr Vale's car park, say — not when the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across Merthyr Tydfil the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of High Street.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Leave out step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Cwmfelin?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Gulf Treharris Service Station or the Esso, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. On your own drive around Cwmfelin? So the vehicle stays put.
Already started? Stop once it's safe, then turn off. The next exit is where to leave if you are on the M4, under 15 miles from Cwmfelin. Distance counts — a short hop across Cwmfelin makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Newport — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival around Cwmfelin, and what takes place next
Wherever your car has stopped, whether outside the local primary school, near Bedlinog Community Centre or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because those replies decide the work and our price. That quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Then the tank is emptied and the system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Cwmfelin and where it is
Cwmfelin is a small village in Merthyr Tydfil, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 195 metres. Cwmfelin lies near the communities of Bedlinog, Merthyr Vale, and Aberfan, and is approximately 15.5 miles from Newport. Cwmfelin has a population of around 583 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Cwmfelin is located in a scenic area, with the Welsh countryside surrounding it.
AdBlue drains across Merthyr Tydfil, Cwmfelin included
Being a village, Cwmfelin shares its vans surrounding areas — Merthyr Vale, Aberfan — all the way across CF postcodes and the wider area around them. Quote a postcode that starts CF46 6, and the van arrives fastest.
The vehicle does not need to shift. Anywhere it stands — beside Bethel Chapel, on a lay-by heading to Nant Llwynog Park, on a drive — that is where it gets emptied. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Rock UK Summit Centre Indoor Rock Climbing? Close to a border? Asking is better than guessing, so phone.
For Cwmfelin people, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Merthyr Tydfil, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.