Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Llanrug
Pause reading for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. In Llanrug, finding it before your motor runs normally leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that is what many newer diesels near Llanrug and Cwm-y-glo run, with diesel for the engine. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in on every filling station call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Llanrug
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off Ffordd yr Orsaf before work, or in the car park at Glyntwrog on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: a strange car.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Bro Rhythallt or the heart of Llanrug: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt in Llanrug or a drive out in Waun. Seconds, no more.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Llanfairpwll, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Gwynedd that is.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and never rushed by Ffordd Crawia at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it works.
- Both behind a single flap? Then make sure the cap on your diesel filler stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Stop when the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly through its built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, and check again — confirm your diesel cap stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Step five stays out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Llanrug?
Short list, then. First: the engine remains off. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Essar or the Shell, ask the attendants to help push your car away from the petrol pump. On your own drive in Llanrug? Then the vehicle remains put.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. The next exit means where to come off if you are on the Moreton Spur, under 50 miles from Llanrug. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Bangor, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Llanrug.
What takes place when our engineers arrive around Llanrug
Anywhere your car came to rest, be it by the local primary school, near Capel Tan-Y-Coed or at home, the van travels to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — what liquid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. Nobody sets off until you've heard our price by phone.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of the car. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Unrun cars mostly need a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Llanrug itself
Llanrug is a coastal village in Gwynedd, situated near the Menai Strait and overlooking the Isle of Anglesey. Llanrug sits at an elevation of 121 metres, with the village being close to the nearby cities of Bangor and Caernarfon. Llanrug is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is surrounded by smaller settlements such as Bro Rhythallt and Pont-Rhythallt. Llanrug has a population of around 1247 people, making it a small but distinct community in the region.
AdBlue drains across Gwynedd, Llanrug included
Llanrug is a coastal village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Pont-Rhythallt and Tan-y-coed among them, across the LL postcode area. A postcode starting LL55 4 gets the van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift the car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Parc Pwll Moelyn, a side street close to Glascoed Ancient Village: our engineers drain it where it is. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Glyn Arthur Round Cairn and Stone Circle.
The short version for Llanrug motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Gwynedd, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.