How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cymdda
Pause reading for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Cymdda. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel goes to your engine — yet many current diesels driven around Cymdda and Bryncethin carry another fluid as well. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
There's a filler on every tank. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The mistake lives in that gap.
Cymdda: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off The Retreat, or heading home in the car park at Ty Risha.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as readily, and after the pour starts, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Cymdda or out in Sarn.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Aberkenfig or a forecourt around Cymdda, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- Can't see it beside your diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says where.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Sarn, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Bridgend that is.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Heol Y Bryn.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look once more — making sure the diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Cymdda?
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 vehicle on. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Welcome Break, Sainsbury's or any other — the attendants will usually help roll your car clear, when you ask. Your own drive in Cymdda is where it stays.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Cymdda sits under a mile from the M4; there, use the next exit. A short hop across Cymdda is a smaller job than a run towards Swansea, under 25 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Cymdda: what takes place when our engineers get there
Wherever the car came to rest, be it by the local primary school, beside Ynysawdre Swimming Pool and Fitness Centre or on your own drive, our van comes to it. What fluid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask since those answers decide the work and price. On the call itself, you are told our quote — before anything else.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, after that tank is drained. 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. Once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then the vehicle gets tested. Then our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs correctly before leaving.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour once our technicians are there. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Cymdda
Cymdda is a locality situated on the riverside in Bridgend, with an elevation of around 65 metres. Cymdda lies near several nearby places, including Sarn, Bryncoch, and Pen-y-cae, and is approximately 16.5 miles from Swansea. Cymdda has a population of around 3618 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Cymdda is located in a region that is relatively close to major cities, with London being around 148.4 miles away.
Cymdda and Bridgend: AdBlue drains across the area
Cymdda is a small village, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Bryncoch and Pen-y-cae among them, across the CF postcode area. A postcode starting CF32 9 gets the van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift the car. We drain it where it is — a side street near Odeon, a lay-by on the way to Coed Caehelyg, a drive. Guessing doesn't help at the back of M&S Outlet, on a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
Cymdda people: the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere around Bridgend.