AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Marshes: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Leave the engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a full flush, done just where the car stands in Marshes, is usually what it needs when found before the engine runs. Reading in advance? In that case the rest covers how it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your motor — yet many modern diesels seen around Marshes and East Usk hold another fluid as well. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both together under one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
Marshes: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a drive off Wyndham Street before work, or in the car park at Riverside Sports Bar & Kitchen heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: a strange motor.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and after the tip starts, no part stops it. It's seconds, be it out in Crindau or right in the heart of Marshes.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt in Marshes or a drive out in Barrack Hill. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many motors mark which goes in each filler just there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you pick up a hire car or company car — at Newport (South Wales)'s car park, say — rather than once the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere across Newport the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Shaftesbury Street, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Stage five is out.
Marshes: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start the motor: that's how the short order of things starts. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
At a forecourt — Shell, Esso or another — the staff will usually help push the car clear, when you ask. At home around Marshes? Then your car stays where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next exit means the place to leave if you're on the M4, under a mile from Marshes. About how far did it go? Crossing Marshes is less a job than a trip of under a mile towards Newport, and so say.
When our technicians arrive in Marshes, what takes place?
Our van comes to the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Dawat E Islami Shaftesbury, or outside the local primary school. The replies decide the work and our price, so our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. That price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Then that tank is drained and the fuel system purged thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and nothing washes out on its own, however long it sits. Once the filter is cleaned — or renewed, where required — clean diesel is added, and finally the car gets tested. The engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before our engineers head off.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Marshes itself
Marshes is a suburban area located on the coast of Wales, near the city of Newport. Marshes sits at a low elevation of around 10 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Marshes is close to nearby places such as Crindau and Gold Tops, and is part of the wider Newport urban area.
AdBlue drains across Newport, Marshes included
Being a residential suburb, Marshes has the same vans as nearby areas — Gold Tops, Newport — right through NP postcodes and the wider area around them. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting NP20 5.
Moving your car isn't necessary. Anywhere it sits — near 1963, on a layby en route to Shaftesbury Park, at home — that is where it gets drained. Tricky to pin down, like the back of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? By a county line? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
In short, for Marshes motorists
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the car switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Newport.