Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Graig
Leave the engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, when the engine hasn't run, it's emptied and fully cleaned where your car sits in Graig. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many modern diesels in Dyfatty, as well as Graig, run on two fluids; your motor gets only your diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Graig
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Y Graig before work, or in the car park at Pemberton Arms on the way home.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and once the tip begins, no part stops it. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Achddu or bang in the centre of Graig.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, at a forecourt in Graig or a driveway out in Furnace. A few seconds, that's all.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- The handbook shows where it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Pembrey & Burry Port, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Carmarthenshire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Isfryn.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and look again that your diesel cap never opened off.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Graig already?
Do not start the motor: that's how the short order of things begins. Leave the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs the pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Chivers Corner, Murco or another — the staff will normally help push the car clear, when you ask. Your own drive in Graig is the place it stays.
Where the engine has run by now, stop somewhere safe then turn the car off. On the M4, under 10 miles from Graig, that means the next exit. A short hop across Graig is a smaller job than a run towards Swansea, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What occurs when we turn up in Graig
Wherever your car came to rest, whether by the local primary school, beside Our Lady, Star of the Sea or at home, the van comes to it. We ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run, because the answers settle this work and our quote. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Then your tank is drained and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of that clears out on its own, however long it is left. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Then we fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before leaving.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run need about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Graig itself
Graig is a coastal suburban area in Carmarthenshire, situated near the towns of Burry Port and Achddu. Graig sits at a low elevation of 34 metres, looking out towards the sea. Graig is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its residential nature. Graig is located within commuting distance of Swansea, which is 14 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Graig and across Carmarthenshire
As a residential suburb, Graig shares its vans surrounding areas — Burry Port, Llettyrychen — right through SA postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quickest of all: give a SA16 0 postcode to our van.
The car stays where it is. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Amelia Earhart, a lay-by on the way to Memorial Park, a driveway. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Burry Port Branch Library, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
Graig motorists: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Carmarthenshire.