AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dowlais Top: How It Happens and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where the vehicle stands around Dowlais Top, is normally all it needs if caught before the engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Not one liquid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels near Dowlais Top and Incline Top run, with diesel for your engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of motors share a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in the gap that the mistake happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Dowlais Top
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
On a driveway off Coedcae Row before work, or in the car park outside Tredegar Arms on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand gets to 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, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Whether it happens in Dowlais or the middle of Dowlais Top, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Galon Uchaf or a forecourt around Dowlais Top.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it lives when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Merthyr Tydfil, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — anywhere you are around Merthyr Tydfil — 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 Smiths Court.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- Both under a single flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel filler stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Stage five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Dowlais Top?
Don't start the motor: that is where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the Asda, ask the attendants to help push the car away from the pump. If you're on your own drive in Dowlais Top, leave it where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. The next exit is the place to leave if you're on the M4, under 25 miles from Dowlais Top. About how far did it go? Crossing Dowlais Top is smaller a job than a run of under 25 miles towards Newport, and so tell us.
What happens when we arrive around Dowlais Top
The van comes to the car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near Hebron Evangelical Church, or by the local primary school. We ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run, since those answers determine the work and our price. No one sets off until you have had the price over the phone.
Then the tank is drained and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of that clears out on its own, no matter how long it sits. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Dowlais Top
Dowlais Top is a suburban area situated on the shores of a lake in Merthyr Tydfil, with Dowlais Top being one of the higher points in the area at 362 metres. Dowlais Top overlooks the surrounding landscape and is close to nearby communities such as Dowlais and Pen-y-wern. Dowlais Top has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes.
AdBlue drains around Dowlais Top and across Merthyr Tydfil
Over CF postcodes, our vans covering Dowlais Top — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Pant and Pen-y-wern among them. Give a postcode that starts CF48 3, and the van gets there quickest.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Community Nature Garden, a side street close to Guest Memorial Social & Bowls Club: we drain the car where it sits. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Dowlais Boys and Girls Club, close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
Dowlais Top people: the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Merthyr Tydfil.