AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lisbon: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
Keep your engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when the motor has not turned, it's drained and thoroughly purged where the vehicle sits around Lisbon. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it occurs and the how to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel feeds your engine — but plenty of modern diesels driven about Lisbon and Manselton carry another fluid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
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. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
Lisbon: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car 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 Hollett Road before work, or in the car park at Dillwyn Arms on the way home.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, whether out in Penfilia or bang in the heart of Lisbon.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Tre-boeth or a forecourt around Lisbon, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many vehicles mark what belongs in each inlet just there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle 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.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — anywhere it is around Swansea — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine off, and not in a rush beside Lloyd Road at the roadside.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found your filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look again — making sure your diesel filler remained shut the whole time. After that, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Lisbon?
Brief order, then. Top of that: the motor remains unstarted. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Texaco, the Murco or anywhere else. Your own driveway in Lisbon is where it stays.
Already started? Pull over when it is sensible, then switch off. Leave the M4 — under 3 miles out of Lisbon — at the first junction. A short hop across Lisbon is a smaller job than a run towards Swansea, under 3 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when we turn up around Lisbon
The van reaches your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Brynhyfryd Library, or outside the local primary school. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run, because those answers determine the work and the price. On the phone call itself, you are told the price — before dispatch.
Then your tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. The motor is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our engineers leave.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once we arrive, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Lisbon, briefly
Lisbon is a suburban area in Swansea, situated near the coast of Wales, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Lisbon sits approximately 90 metres above sea level, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Lisbon is close to nearby places such as Penfilia, Waun-Gron, and Brynhyfryd, and is about 1.9 miles from Swansea city centre. Lisbon has a population of around 7155 residents.
AdBlue drains around Lisbon and across Swansea
Lisbon is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, Waun-Gron and Brynhyfryd among them, across the SA postcode area. Fastest of all: give a SA5 9 postcode for the van.
The vehicle stays put. Anywhere it sits — beside Penlan Community Centre and Library, in a layby heading to Manselton Park, at home — that is where it is drained. Tricky to explain, like the back of Christ Well URC? Close to a county line? Checking beats assuming, so ring.
Lisbon drivers: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the car switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Swansea.