AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Maen-Offeren: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
Stop here for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where the car sits in Maen-Offeren, is usually all it needs if caught before your motor runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to the motor — yet many newer diesels driven about Maen-Offeren and Rhiwbryfdir hold a second fluid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both together behind one flap. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Maen-Offeren?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and running out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Heol Glynllifon, perhaps outside Y Meirion on the way home after work.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Maen-Offeren or out in Blaenau Ffestiniog.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Glanypwll or a forecourt in Maen-Offeren, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles mark which goes in each inlet right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you collect a rental or fleet car — at Blaenau Ffestiniog's car park, say — rather than when the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Gwynedd that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Heol Maenofferen, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Maen-Offeren?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or another — the staff will normally help push the car clear, when you ask. At home around Maen-Offeren? So the car remains where it is.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction means where to come off if you are on the Moreton Spur, under 50 miles from Maen-Offeren. Mileage counts — a short hop across Maen-Offeren is a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Bangor — so say about how far it went.
Maen-Offeren: what happens when we turn up
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, close to Blaenau Ffestiniog Library or on your own drive. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — what liquid, which amount, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. On the call itself, you hear the quote — before dispatch.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, once your tank is emptied. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears away unaided. Hence it counts more. Once the filter has been flushed — or renewed, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle gets tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Maen-Offeren
Maen-Offeren is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Gwynedd, with a mix of terraced housing and a population of around 2296 residents. Maen-Offeren sits at an elevation of 224 metres, near the towns of Blaenau Ffestiniog and Bangor. Maen-Offeren is located in a scenic part of Wales, with the nearby villages of Trefeini and Bethania also forming part of the local community. Maen-Offeren is approximately 190.9 miles from London, making it a relatively remote suburban area.
AdBlue drains across Gwynedd, Maen-Offeren included
Being a residential suburb, Maen-Offeren has the same vans as surrounding areas — Trefeini, Bethania — all the way through LL postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quickest of all: give a LL41 3 postcode for the van.
Your car doesn't need to move. Wherever it stands — near Jerusalem Independent Chapel, on a layby heading to Municipal Garden, on a drive — that's where it is drained. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Cyngor Tref Ffestiniog, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
The short version for Maen-Offeren motorists
First, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere across Gwynedd.