Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dunvant: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Dunvant. Reading before the event? Then the rest covers why it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel feeds your motor — but plenty of newer diesels driven round Dunvant and Olchfa carry a second liquid too. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
There's a filler on every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think what cap it needs. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Dunvant
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Voylart Road before work, or in the car park outside The Dunvant heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits 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. So the tip, after begun, keeps on. Whether it takes place in Killay or the middle of Dunvant, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Fairwood or a forecourt around Dunvant, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Gowerton's car park, say — not once the warning comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Anywhere around Swansea the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Dunvant Square.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Finish once that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly using its built-in spout.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Step five stays out.
Dunvant: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the Texaco, ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Dunvant.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Dunvant sits under 5 miles from the M4; there, use the first exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Dunvant is less a job than a trip of under 5 miles towards Swansea, and so say.
Dunvant: what takes place when our engineers get there
By the local primary school, close to Dunvant Social Centre or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because those answers determine this work and our quote. On the phone call itself, you hear the quote — ahead of anything else.
Draining that tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run take about half an hour after our technicians are there. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Dunvant itself
Dunvant is a coastal village in Swansea, situated approximately 4 miles west of the city centre, with nearby villages including Killay and Waunarlwydd. Dunvant sits at an elevation of around 57 metres, looking out towards the Bristol Channel. Dunvant has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Dunvant remains a relatively small community, with a population of around 1670 residents.
AdBlue drains about Dunvant, and Swansea beyond
Upper Killay and Waunarlwydd are among the places near Dunvant, a coastal village, that the same vans cover, over SA postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SA2 7.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a street near Ebenezer Congregational Chapel, or a layby towards Dunvant Square. Awkward to explain, like the back of St Martin? Close to a border? Asking beats assuming, so ring.
The short version for Dunvant motorists
First, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere around Swansea.