Glais: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep the motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Glais, finding it before the engine turns usually means a drain and a full flush where it stands. Here in advance? In that case the rest explains why it comes about and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that's what many newer diesels around Glais and Aber-Clydach run, with diesel feeding the motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
There's a filler for every tank. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both together under one flap. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Glais?
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off School Road before work, or in the car park outside The Globe Inn heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, carries on. Whether it takes place in Cefn-y-Garth or the middle of Glais, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Faerdre or a forecourt in Glais, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- The handbook says where it lives when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Ask when you pick up a rental or company car — at Llansamlet's car park, say — not when the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, wherever around Swansea, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Graigola Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- Both under one flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel side is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — confirm your diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Step five is out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Glais?
Do not start the engine: that's where the short order of things starts. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, Texaco or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear when you ask. If you are on your own drive around Glais, leave it where it sits.
Already started? Stop when it is sensible, then turn off. The next exit is where to leave if you are on the M4, under 3 miles from Glais. Distance matters — a short hop across Glais is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Swansea — so say about how far it went.
What happens when our technicians arrive around Glais
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it by the local primary school, beside Saint Paul's Church or at home, our van comes to it. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those replies set the work and quote. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a thorough 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 doesn't wash out on its own. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or changed as needed. We don't leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Glais, for a moment
Glais is a small village situated on the riverside in Swansea, with a mix of rural and suburban characteristics. Glais has a relatively low elevation of 45 metres and is located near several other communities, including Cefn-y-Garth and Clydach. Glais is predominantly composed of detached housing and is close to the city of Swansea, being only 5.5 miles away. Glais is also within a reasonable distance from major cities, with London being approximately 161 miles away.
AdBlue drains round Glais, and Swansea beyond
As a village, Glais has the same vans as surrounding areas — Clydach, Mount Pleasant — right through SA postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quote a postcode beginning SA7 9, and our van gets there fastest.
The car does not need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Clwb Rygbi Glais, a side street close to Capel Sion: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Peniel Chapel.
In short, for Glais people
First, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Swansea, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.