Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Griffithstown
Stop reading for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where your vehicle sits around Griffithstown, is normally what it needs if found before your engine runs. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of current diesels driven around Griffithstown and Pontymoel carry a second fluid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Many of motors have a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. It is in the gap that the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Griffithstown: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off Mountain Lane before work, or in the car park outside Panteg House Sports & Social Club heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once begun, carries on. It takes seconds, be it out in Penyrheol or bang in the centre of Griffithstown.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Cwm Fields or a forecourt around Griffithstown, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors show what goes in each filler just there.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Pontypool and New Inn? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than once 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 around Torfaen that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of St Mary's Close, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third step that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Step five stays out.
Griffithstown: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your motor remains unstarted. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The staff at Shell, Esso or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car clear when asked. If you're on your own driveway in Griffithstown, leave the vehicle where it is.
Where the motor has been run by now, stop somewhere safe then switch it off. Griffithstown sits under 10 miles from the Brynglas Tunnel; on it, use the first junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across Griffithstown makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Newport — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Griffithstown, and what takes place next
Outside the local primary school, near St Hilda's Church Hall or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — which fluid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. During the phone call itself, you are told the price — before anything else.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before leaving, our engineers start the car and check that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our technicians get there, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Griffithstown and where it is
Griffithstown is a suburban area in Torfaen, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 149 metres. Griffithstown lies approximately 7 miles north of Newport and is surrounded by nearby places such as Penyrheol, Sebastopol, and Cwmynyscoy. Griffithstown has a population of around 2823 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Griffithstown is located about 125 miles west of London, in the south of Wales.
AdBlue drains in Griffithstown and across Torfaen
Sebastopol and Cwmynyscoy are among the places near Griffithstown, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout NP postcodes. Give a postcode that starts NP4 5, and the van gets there fastest.
No need to shift the vehicle. Wherever it sits — beside PILCS Social Club, in a lay-by en route to Panteg Park, at home — that is where it gets emptied. Assuming won't help behind Penry Gospel Hall, close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
Griffithstown motorists: the short version
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, wherever around Torfaen: switch it off then ring 0333 366 0103.