Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Marian-y-mor
Stop here a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. In Marian-y-mor, finding it before your engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Here in advance? Then what follows covers why it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your engine — yet many current diesels seen round Marian-y-mor and Denio hold another fluid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in at each forecourt visit, week in, week out. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Marian-y-mor
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Heol Hamdden, or at Pen Cob on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: an unfamiliar motor.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, carries on. Penrhydlyniog or the middle of Marian-y-mor: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Penrallt or a forecourt around Marian-y-mor.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Pwllheli? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Gwynedd that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Cae Solomon, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is off limits.
Marian-y-mor: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short order, then. Top of it: the engine remains off. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it by itself starts the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, BP or another — the attendants will normally help push the car away, when you ask. At home in Marian-y-mor? So the vehicle stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. On the Moreton Spur, over 50 miles from Marian-y-mor, that means the next junction. Distance matters — a quick hop across Marian-y-mor makes a smaller job than heading under 50 miles towards Bangor — so tell us about how far it went.
When we get there in Marian-y-mor, what happens?
Wherever the vehicle has stopped, be it by the local primary school, beside Canolfan Hamdden Dwyfor or on your own drive, our van travels to it. The replies settle the work and our quote, and so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run. That price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out unaided, no matter how long it sits. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. The engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive, provided your motor has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Marian-y-mor itself
Marian-y-mor is a small coastal suburban area in Gwynedd, situated near the towns of Pwllheli and Penrhydlyniog. Marian-y-mor has a population of around 1301 people and is characterized by its terraced housing. Marian-y-mor is located close to South Beach and enjoys views of the surrounding coastline. Marian-y-mor sits at a low elevation of approximately 5 metres above sea level.
Marian-y-mor and Gwynedd: AdBlue drains across the area
As a residential suburb, Marian-y-mor has the same vans as nearby areas — South Beach, Pwllheli — all the way across LL postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quote a postcode beginning LL53 5, and the van arrives quickest.
There's no need to shift the car. Wherever it stands — beside Canolfan Hamdded Dwyfor, on a lay-by en route to Marian Y De Park, at home — that's where it gets emptied. Assuming doesn't help at the back of St Joseph's Catholic Church, on a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
For Marian-y-mor people, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere around Gwynedd.