AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Letterston: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, leave your ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the engine hasn't turned, it is drained and fully rinsed where your car is in Letterston. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels near Letterston and Wolfs Castle carry, with diesel feeding your engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which filler it needs. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Letterston
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Station Terrace, or outside The Harp Inn on the way home that evening.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have 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, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Letterston or out in Welsh Hook.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Little Newcastle or a forecourt in Letterston.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show which goes in each inlet right there.
- The handbook says which it lives if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Fishguard & Goodwick, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Pembrokeshire that is.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush by Upper Terrace on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look again — making sure your diesel filler remained closed throughout. After that, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Leave out stage five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Letterston?
Short list, then. Top of it: your motor remains off. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Gulf, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car clear when asked. On your own drive in Letterston? Then the car stays put.
When your engine has been run by now, pull over safely then turn it off. Letterston sits under 50 miles from the M4; there, take the first exit. A short hop across Letterston is a smaller job than a run towards St Davids, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Letterston: what happens when our engineers arrive
Our van comes to the car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Letterston Memorial Hall, or outside the local primary school. Our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since the answers decide the work and the price. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears away on its own, no matter how long it sits. The filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. We do not go until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our engineers arrive, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Letterston and where it is
Letterston is a rural village in Pembrokeshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 130 metres. Letterston lies approximately 12 miles from St Davids, the smallest city in the UK, and is surrounded by smaller settlements like Welsh Hook and Sealyham. Letterston has a population of around 841 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Letterston is located about 210 miles west of London, in the scenic Welsh countryside.
AdBlue drains across Pembrokeshire, Letterston included
As a rural village, Letterston has the same vans as surrounding areas — Sealyham, Bengal — all the way through SA postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quickest of all: give a SA62 5 postcode for our van.
There's no need to move the vehicle. Anywhere it stands — near St. Dogfael, Sealyham, in a lay-by en route to Sealyham Woods, on a drive — that's where it is drained. Guessing won't help behind Pen Y Bont Vestry, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
Letterston drivers: the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, wherever around Pembrokeshire: keep the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.