Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Eastbrook
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, keep the ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Eastbrook, catching it before your motor turns usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it happens and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your motor — yet plenty of newer diesels seen around Eastbrook and Cogan carry a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on each tank. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both together under one flap. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Eastbrook
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Eastbrook Close, or on the way home in the car park at Cross Keys.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: a new car.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Murch or the middle of Eastbrook, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Eastbrook or a drive over in Michaelston-le-Pit. A few seconds, that's all.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you collect a rental or company car — from the nearest station's car park, say — not once the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in The Vale of Glamorgan that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Millbrook Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check once more — making sure your diesel cap remained shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Step five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Eastbrook?
Don't start the motor: that's how the short order of things begins. Leave the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts your pump. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Texaco, the Tesco or somewhere else. Your own driveway in Eastbrook is where it should stay.
Already run? Pull over when it is safe, then turn off. Leave the M4 — under 10 miles out of Eastbrook — at the next exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Eastbrook is a smaller job than driving under 5 miles to Cardiff — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What occurs when we get there in Eastbrook
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it by the local primary school, beside Dinas Powys Community Library or at home, the van comes to it. Our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run, because the replies settle this work and the quote. That quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Then that tank is drained and your system flushed 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 filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a check of your vehicle. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Eastbrook, for a moment
Eastbrook is a suburban area in The Vale of Glamorgan, situated near the coast and approximately 3.4 miles from Cardiff. Eastbrook has a relatively low elevation of 17 metres and is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock. Eastbrook is part of the wider Cardiff urban area, with the city's amenities and services within easy reach. Eastbrook is also close to other nearby places, including Murch, Dinas Powis, and Westra.
Eastbrook and The Vale of Glamorgan: AdBlue drains across the area
As a residential suburb, Eastbrook has the same vans as surrounding areas — Dinas Powis, Westra — right through CF postcodes and the wider area around them. A postcode starting CF64 4 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car does not need to shift. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to St Peter's Church, a lay-by on the way to Seel Park, a driveway. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Eastbrook Methodist Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Eastbrook people
First, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across The Vale of Glamorgan.