AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ffairfach: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Around Ffairfach, catching it before your motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Reading in advance? Then what follows covers how it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Ffairfach and Pen-y-banc carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Ffairfach: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
On a driveway off Heol Bethlehem before work, or in the car park outside The Tregyb Arms on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing halts the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Llandeilo or the middle of Ffairfach, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these first, at a forecourt around Ffairfach or a driveway over in Pontbren Araeth. A few seconds, that's all.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you pick up a rental or company car — from the nearest station's car park, perhaps — rather than once the light appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Wherever in Carmarthenshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Railway Terrace, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third step that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Leave out stage five altogether.
Ffairfach: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Oil 4 Wales or the another forecourt nearby, ask the staff to help roll the car away from the petrol pump. At home in Ffairfach? Then the car stays put.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M4 — under 10 miles out of Ffairfach — at the first exit. A short hop across Ffairfach is a smaller job than a run towards Swansea, under 25 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when we turn up in Ffairfach
Wherever the car came to rest, whether by the local primary school, beside Tabernacl Capel Yr Annibynwyr or at home, our van travels to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since those answers determine the work and our quote. Nobody sets off before you have heard the price by phone.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears away unaided. That is why it counts more. A test is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Your engine is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before we head off.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour visit from arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Ffairfach and where it is
Ffairfach is a small village in Carmarthenshire, situated on the banks of the River Towy at an elevation of around 30 metres. Ffairfach lies near the market town of Llandeilo and the historic Dinefwr Park, with the city of Swansea approximately 18 miles to the south. Ffairfach has a population of around 512 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Ffairfach is also close to the village of Rhosmaen, sharing a similar rural character.
AdBlue drains round Ffairfach, and Carmarthenshire beyond
Ffairfach is a village, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Dinefwr Park and Rhosmaen among them, across the SA postcode area. Give a postcode that starts SA19 6, and the van gets there fastest.
The car remains put. We drain it where it is — a side street near Tregib Sports Facilities, a lay-by on the way to Penlan Park, a driveway. Awkward to pin down, like the back of St Teilo's? Close to a county line? Asking is better than assuming, so ring.
The short version for Ffairfach motorists
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Carmarthenshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.