Langland: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where the car sits around Langland, is usually what it needs if caught before the motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels around Oystermouth, as well as Langland, carry on two fluids; the engine takes only the diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where a spray cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Langland?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and running out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Langland Bay Road, or outside The Newton on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: a new motor.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Langland or out in Newton.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt around Langland or a drive over in Norton. Seconds, no more.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — many motors show what goes in each inlet right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you collect a hire car or company car — at Swansea's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever in Swansea the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Langland Court Road, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel side is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Stop once the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly through the own spout.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Leave out step five entirely.
Langland: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. Leave the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it by itself starts the pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
At a forecourt — Newton Garage, another forecourt nearby or another — the attendants will normally help push the vehicle clear, when you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Langland, leave the car where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. The next junction means where to come off if you are on the M4, under 10 miles from Langland. A short hop across Langland is a smaller job than a run towards Swansea, under 5 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers arrive around Langland, what occurs?
Anywhere the car has stopped, be it by the local primary school, beside 3G Underhill Park or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — what liquid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. On the phone call itself, you are told our price — before anything else.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. That is why it counts more. Once your filter is flushed — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel is added, and then the car gets tested. After that our engineers start it and confirm it runs smoothly before leaving.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after we arrive, as long as your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Langland
Langland is a coastal suburban area in Swansea, situated approximately 4.6 miles from the city centre. Langland sits at an elevation of 27 metres, overlooking the Bristol Channel, and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Langland is close to nearby places such as Newton, Mumbles, and Thistleboon, and is part of the wider Swansea urban area.
AdBlue drains round Langland, and Swansea beyond
Over SA postcodes, the vans covering Langland — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Thistleboon and Mumbles included. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SA3 4.
No need to move the car. Draining happens on the spot, whether a drive, a street by Saint Peter's, or a layby towards Underhill Woods. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Snaple Point? By a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
In short, for Langland motorists
First, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Swansea, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.