AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Newtown: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your engine hasn't turned, it is drained and fully purged where your vehicle sits around Newtown. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that is how many modern diesels near Newtown and Milford carry, with diesel feeding your engine. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. It is in the gap that the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Newtown: how it happens
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Shortbridge Street before work, or in the car park outside The Sportsman heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Penygloddfa or the middle of Newtown: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Maesyrhandir or a forecourt around Newtown.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- On plenty of motors, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show what belongs in each inlet right 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 person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Newtown (Powys), ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere in Powys, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of High Street.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Both under a single flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel filler is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Newtown?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at BP, Tesco or another forecourt will normally help pushing your car clear when asked. On your own drive in Newtown? So the vehicle remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. The next exit means where to leave when you're on the M54, under 50 miles from Newtown. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Wrexham, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Newtown.
Our arrival in Newtown, and what happens next
Outside the local primary school, close to The Robert Owen Museum or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since the replies settle the work and our quote. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Then your tank is drained and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears away on its own, no matter how long it is left. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel is added, and finally your car gets tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Newtown, for a moment
Newtown is a town situated on the River Severn in Powys, Wales, with a population of around 8824 people. Newtown sits at an elevation of 111 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as Penygloddfa, Trehafren, and Garth Owen. Newtown has a mix of housing types, but terraced housing is predominant, reflecting its historic development as a riverside town. Newtown is located approximately 39 miles from Wrexham and 152 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Newtown and across Powys
Over SY postcodes, the vans that cover Newtown — a new town — work the nearby spots too, Garth Owen and Trehafren among them. Quote a postcode that starts SY16 2, and our van arrives fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. Draining happens right there, whether a drive, a road near The Salvation Army, or a lay-by on the way to Memorial Park. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Robert Owen, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
In short, for Newtown motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Powys, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.