AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Five Roads: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
Stop here a minute if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Five Roads. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single fluid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels around Five Roads and Carway carry, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
Different tanks, different fillers. On a lot of vehicles 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 fuelled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Five Roads: how it happens
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off B4309 before work, or in the car park at Waun Wyllt Inn on the way home.
New-to-you vehicles are next, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company motors put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it 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, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Horeb or the heart of Five Roads: it is the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a Five Roads forecourt or a drive over in Pen-y-mynydd, spend a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Llanelli.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Carmarthenshire that is.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never rushed by Heol Hen on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- Both under one flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel filler stays shut before raising the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Skip stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Five Roads?
Don't start the motor: that's how the short order of things starts. Leave your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels it by itself starts your pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Asda, Texaco or any other — the staff will usually help roll the vehicle away, if you ask. On your own drive around Five Roads? Then the car stays put.
Already run? Pull over when it's safe, then turn off. The next exit means the place to leave when you are on the M4, under 10 miles from Five Roads. About how far did it go? Hopping across Five Roads is smaller work than a trip of under 15 miles to Swansea, so tell us.
Five Roads: what occurs when we get there
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, near Heritage Centre or on your own drive. What liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those replies set the work and price. You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your car. Next our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before leaving.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of 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 in advance; 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. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Five Roads, for a moment
Five Roads is a small village in Carmarthenshire, situated near the coast of Wales, with an elevation of around 164 metres. Five Roads lies approximately 12.9 miles from Swansea and is surrounded by nearby villages such as Horeb, Cynheidre, and Sylen. Five Roads has a population of around 639 people and predominantly features detached housing.
Five Roads and Carmarthenshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Cynheidre and Sylen are among the places near Five Roads, a coastal village, that the same teams cover, over SA postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a SA15 5 postcode to our van.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a driveway, a street near Yr Arwr / The Hero, or a layby towards Clappers Wood. Guessing won't help behind Capel Seilo, close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
In short, for Five Roads people
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Carmarthenshire.