AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Merthyr Dyfan: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
Pause reading for a moment if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Merthyr Dyfan, catching it before the engine runs usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Here before the event? Then the rest covers how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels around Burdonshill, like those in Merthyr Dyfan, run on two fluids; the motor gets just the diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It is in the gap that the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Merthyr Dyfan
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Merthyr Dyfan Road, perhaps outside Master Mariner on the way home that evening.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and after the tip starts, no part stops it. Gibbonsdown or the heart of Merthyr Dyfan: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Barry Dock or a forecourt around Merthyr Dyfan, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to your diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Cadoxton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning appears — wherever it is in The Vale of Glamorgan — a simple routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Pendine Close.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Stop once the tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently through its built-in spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Step five stays out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Merthyr Dyfan?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
At a forecourt — Texaco, Morrisons or any other — the staff will normally help roll the vehicle clear, if you ask. If you're on your own drive around Merthyr Dyfan, leave the car where it stands.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M4, under 10 miles from Merthyr Dyfan, that means the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Merthyr Dyfan is less work than a run of under 10 miles towards Cardiff, and so tell us.
What occurs when we get there around Merthyr Dyfan
Outside the local primary school, near Colocot Community Centre or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. What fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask since the replies decide both work and quote. No one sets off before you've heard the price over the phone.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after your tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears away unaided, no matter how long it sits. Filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. The motor is started next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our technicians head off.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Merthyr Dyfan itself
Merthyr Dyfan is a suburban area in the Vale of Glamorgan, situated near the coast and approximately 5.8 miles southwest of Cardiff. Merthyr Dyfan sits at an elevation of around 73 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Merthyr Dyfan is close to nearby places such as Gibbonsdown, Cadoxton, and Colcot, and is part of the wider Cardiff urban area.
Merthyr Dyfan and The Vale of Glamorgan: AdBlue drains across the area
Cadoxton and Colcot are among the places around Merthyr Dyfan, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over CF postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts CF62 9, and the van arrives fastest.
The car doesn't need to move. Anywhere it stands — near Merthyr Dyfan (Church in Wales), on a lay-by en route to Reservoir Fields, on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Gibbonsdown Community Centre.
In short, for Merthyr Dyfan motorists
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it stands, wherever around The Vale of Glamorgan: switch the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.