Landore: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Landore. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads round Landore and Cnap-Llwyd carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on every tank. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two side by side behind one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Landore: how it occurs
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
On a drive off Neath Road before work, or in the car park at Morris Arms on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: an unfamiliar motor.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once begun, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Landore or out in Brynhyfryd.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, on a forecourt around Landore or a drive over in Penfilia. Seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Swansea, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Swansea that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of A4067.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- The two behind one flap? So confirm the cap on the diesel side is still shut before raising the bottle.
- Stop when the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip gently through its built-in spout.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never opened off.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Landore?
Short list, then. Top of that: your engine stays unstarted. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Texaco or the Morrisons, ask the staff to help roll your car away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Landore.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M4 — under 3 miles out of Landore — at the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Swansea, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Landore.
When we arrive around Landore, what takes place?
By the local primary school, close to Swansea Museum Collections Centre or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — which fluid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. The quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. Before we go, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it's running smoothly.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Landore, for a moment
Landore is a coastal suburban area in Swansea, situated approximately 1.5 miles from the city centre. Landore sits at a low elevation of around 20 metres, with its terraced housing stock reflecting the area's historical development. Landore is close to nearby places such as Brynhyfryd, Hafod, and Plas-Marl, and is home to a population of around 4215 people. Landore's proximity to Swansea makes it a popular residential location.
AdBlue drains about Landore, and Swansea beyond
Landore is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Hafod and Plas-Marl among them, across the SA postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SA1 2.
The car does not need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Cwm Level Park, a side street near Swansea.com Stadium: our engineers drain the car where it is. Guessing doesn't help behind Laboratory, close to a border, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
For Landore people, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, wherever around Swansea: keep the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.