Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Newcastle
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where your car stands around Newcastle, is usually what it takes if caught before the engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — but many newer diesels driven around Newcastle and Llangewydd Court hold another fluid as well. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
There's a filler on every tank. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two together under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. The error lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Newcastle?
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off West Road, or outside Riverside Tavern on the way home after work.
New-to-you vehicles come second, too. Rentals, new motors and company motors place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, carries on. Ystrad Fawr or the heart of Newcastle: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Brynhyfryd or a forecourt around Newcastle.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Bridgend? Ask whoever drove it last before you set off, rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is around Bridgend — a routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of The Square.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Finish when the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip slowly using its built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — making sure the diesel cap remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Newcastle?
Don't start your engine: that's how the short order of things starts. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Tesco or the Applegreen, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway in Newcastle, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Come off the M4 — under 3 miles out of Newcastle — at the first exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Newcastle is smaller work than a trip of under 25 miles to Swansea, so say.
What takes place when our technicians turn up in Newcastle
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to St Illtyds Church or on your own drive. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — what liquid, which amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. You hear that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of your vehicle. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Newcastle, for a moment
Newcastle is a suburban area in Bridgend, Wales, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 47 metres. Newcastle lies near several nearby places, including Ystrad Fawr, Bridgend, and Tremains, and is approximately 17 miles from Swansea. Newcastle has a population of around 4088 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Newcastle is located in a region with easy access to major cities, being around 149 miles from London.
AdBlue drains round Newcastle, and Bridgend beyond
Bridgend and Tremains are among the places around Newcastle, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout CF postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting CF31 4.
The vehicle stays put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Craig-y-Parcau, a side street near Y Castell Newydd: our engineers drain the car where it sits. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Bridgend United Church, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Newcastle people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere across Bridgend.