How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pembrey
Stop here a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where your car sits around Pembrey, is normally all it takes when found before your motor runs. Here in advance? In that case the rest explains why it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — but many current diesels driven about Pembrey and Graig carry another fluid as well. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Many of cars have a single flap for both, while some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every filling station visit, again and again. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think which filler to use. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Pembrey?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Randell Square, or on the way home in the car park outside The Pembrey Inn.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Pembrey or out in Furnace.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Pembrey or a drive over in Burry Port. A few seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many motors mark which belongs in each inlet right there.
- The handbook says where it is if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Pembrey & Burry Port? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere across Carmarthenshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Gwscwm Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- Both under a single flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel filler is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Don't carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Pembrey?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Chivers Corner or the Murco, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Pembrey.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M4, under 10 miles from Pembrey, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Pembrey is smaller a job than a trip of under 25 miles towards Swansea, and so tell us.
When we turn up around Pembrey, what occurs?
Wherever the car has stopped, be it by the local primary school, beside St Illtyd's Church or at home, the van comes to it. Those replies settle the work and our quote, so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. On the phone call itself, you are told the quote — before dispatch.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Then we fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before we leave.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Pembrey itself
Pembrey is a coastal village in Carmarthenshire, situated near the mouth of the Burry Inlet and close to the Gower Peninsula. Pembrey sits at a low elevation of around 10 metres, with its detached housing stock reflecting its appeal as a residential location. Pembrey is located near several smaller communities, including Furnace and Penybedd, and is within commuting distance of Swansea.
AdBlue drains across Carmarthenshire, Pembrey included
Being a coastal village, Pembrey shares its vans nearby areas — Penybedd, Achddu — all the way across SA postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting SA16 0 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle does not need to shift. Draining happens on the spot, whether a drive, a street near Pembrey Memorial Community Centre, or a lay-by on the way to Ashburnham Golf Club. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Burry Port Branch Library? By a county line? Asking is better than guessing, so ring.
For Pembrey people, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Carmarthenshire.