Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Glasllwch
Keep the engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Around Glasllwch, finding it before your motor turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. Here before the event? Then what follows explains how it comes about and how to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single liquid but two: that's how many newer diesels around Glasllwch and Ridgeway run, with diesel for your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. 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. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Glasllwch: how it happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Gaer Park Lane, perhaps outside Gaer Inn on the way home after work.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part halts the tip after 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 Gaer or the middle of Glasllwch, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Stow Park or a forecourt around Glasllwch.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- On many cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — many motors show which belongs in which filler right there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Pye Corner, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere in Newport, use this routine.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and not rushed by Gaer Park Hill on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Glasllwch already?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Tesco, the Asda or somewhere else. At home around Glasllwch? 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 a mile out of Glasllwch — at the first exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Glasllwch makes a smaller job than driving under 3 miles towards Newport — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival around Glasllwch, and what takes place next
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to Liberty Church Newport or on your own driveway. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — which fluid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. That price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Draining your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of that washes out unaided, no matter how long it is left. Once the filter is flushed — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle is tested. Then we start the engine and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Glasllwch itself
Glasllwch is a suburban area located near the city of Newport in Wales, situated approximately 1.3 miles from the city centre. Glasllwch sits at an elevation of 59 metres, close to the coastal area, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Gaer and Caerau Park. Glasllwch has a population of around 3656 people, predominantly residing in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains round Glasllwch, and Newport beyond
Glasllwch is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Stelvio and Caerau Park among them, across the NP postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a NP20 3 postcode for the van.
No need to move the car. Draining happens right there, whether a driveway, a road near Gaer Road Men's Shed, or a layby towards Coed Melyn Park. Tricky to pin down, like the back of St Martin-in-the-Gaer? By a border? Asking is better than assuming, so ring.
For Glasllwch drivers, the short version
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Newport.