How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dyffryn Ardudwy
Pause here a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. In Dyffryn Ardudwy, finding it before the motor runs normally means a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's how many modern diesels around Dyffryn Ardudwy and Tal-y-bont run, with diesel feeding the motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
There is a filler for each tank. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Dyffryn Ardudwy: how it happens
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Ffordd Isaf, or heading home in the car park outside Cadwgan Hotel.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and once the tip begins, no part stops it. It's seconds, be it out in Llanddwywe or right in the centre of Dyffryn Ardudwy.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Dyffryn Ardudwy or a drive out in Llanbedr. A few seconds, no more.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many cars show what goes in each filler just there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Gwynedd that is.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Y Brif Heol.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently through its own spout.
- Close the cap, then look once more — making sure your diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Find during the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Skip step five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Dyffryn Ardudwy?
Do not start your motor: that's where the short order of things begins. Keep your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts the pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or the another forecourt nearby, ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. If you're on your own driveway around Dyffryn Ardudwy, leave it where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. The next junction is the place to come off when you're on the M56, over 50 miles from Dyffryn Ardudwy. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Dyffryn Ardudwy is smaller work than a run of under 50 miles towards Bangor, and so tell us.
When our engineers turn up in Dyffryn Ardudwy, what happens?
The van comes to your car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Church Hall, or outside the local primary school. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — which fluid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. During the call itself, you hear our price — ahead of dispatch.
Then the tank is cleared and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. We don't go until it has been started and is running properly.
Unrun cars mostly need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Dyffryn Ardudwy itself
Dyffryn Ardudwy is a coastal village in Gwynedd, situated near the Cardigan Bay coastline at an elevation of 31 metres. Dyffryn Ardudwy lies within a short distance of nearby settlements such as Llanddwywe and Llanenddwyn, and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Dyffryn Ardudwy is home to a population of around 775 residents, who live in a scenic area with views of the surrounding coastline.
AdBlue drains around Dyffryn Ardudwy and across Gwynedd
Llanenddwyn and Coed Ystumgwern are among the places near Dyffryn Ardudwy, a coastal village, that the same vans cover, throughout LL postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a LL44 2 postcode to the van.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Beddrod Siambr Dyffryn Ardudwy, a lay-by on the way to Coed y bachau, a drive. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Capel Horeb, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Dyffryn Ardudwy motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Gwynedd.