Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Golftyn
Pause reading for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor hasn't run, it is drained and fully cleaned where the car is in Golftyn. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the engine — yet many modern diesels seen about Golftyn and Rockcliffe hold a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of vehicles have a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Golftyn
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Church Street before work, or in the car park at Cross Keys on the way home.
New-to-you cars are second, as well. Rentals, new cars and company cars place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap 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, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Connahs Quay or the middle of Golftyn: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt in Golftyn or a driveway out in Higher Shotton. A few seconds, no more.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- On plenty of cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to the diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Shotton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Flintshire that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Lower Brook Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Golftyn?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Esso, the another forecourt nearby or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive around Golftyn, leave it where it sits.
Already run? Stop once it's safe, then turn off. On the M56, under 10 miles from Golftyn, that means the next exit. A short hop across Golftyn is a smaller job than a run towards Chester, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when our technicians get there around Golftyn
Our van comes to the car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near the centre, or by Bishop Wilson Church of England Primary School. We ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since the replies settle the work and the price. You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
Then your tank is drained and the system purged thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. Hence it counts more. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and check that it is running smoothly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour after we arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Golftyn and where it is
Golftyn is a coastal suburban area in Flintshire, situated near the Dee Estuary and close to the English border. Golftyn sits at a low elevation of around 11 metres, with views out across the estuary to the Wirral Peninsula. Golftyn is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock and its proximity to nearby towns such as Connahs Quay and Chester. Golftyn is also near the smaller communities of Kelsterton and Wepre.
AdBlue drains across Flintshire, Golftyn included
Golftyn is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Kelsterton and Wepre among them, across the CH postcode area. Give a postcode beginning CH5 4, and our van gets there quickest.
There's no need to move the vehicle. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a road near Deeside Stadium, or a layby on the way to Central Park. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Connah's Quay Leisure Centre.
For Golftyn people, the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Flintshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.