Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pencaerau: Why It Occurs
Leave the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Around Pencaerau, finding it before the engine turns usually means a drain and a full flush on the spot. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Pencaerau and Mount Pleasant carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from a separate tank.
There's a filler for every tank. Many of vehicles share a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at each filling station visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
Pencaerau: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things lining up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and running out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Old Road, perhaps outside Cambrian Arms on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: a strange motor.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. It's a few seconds, whether out in Penrhiwtyn or right in the heart of Pencaerau.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Ynysmaerdy or a forecourt in Pencaerau.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of cars mark which belongs in which inlet just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Briton Ferry, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light appears — wherever you are across Neath Port Talbot — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor off, and not rushed by Greenwood Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look again — making sure the diesel cap remained closed throughout. After that, start your car.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Pencaerau?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. Keep the ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on alone runs the pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Tesco, ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump. Your own drive around Pencaerau is the place it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. Pencaerau sits under 3 miles from the M4; on it, take the next exit. A short hop across Pencaerau is a smaller job than a run towards Swansea, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we arrive in Pencaerau, what happens?
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, close to St. Catherine's Community Rooms or on your own drive. Which fluid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since the replies set the work and quote. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Draining that tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. Hence it counts more. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we leave, our engineers start it and confirm that it's running correctly.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need roughly half an hour once our technicians are there. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Pencaerau and where it is
Pencaerau is a suburban area in Neath Port Talbot, situated near the coast and approximately 5.9 miles from Swansea. Pencaerau has a relatively low elevation of 42 metres and is surrounded by nearby places such as Penrhiwtyn and Melincryddan. Pencaerau is characterised by its predominantly terraced housing stock, which reflects the area's historical development as a residential community.
AdBlue drains about Pencaerau, and Neath Port Talbot beyond
Melincryddan and Cwrt Sart are among the towns around Pencaerau, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout SA postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning SA11 2, and our van arrives quickest.
No need to shift your car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Melyn Park, a side street near Melin Community Trust: our technicians drain it where it stands. Awkward to explain, like the back of Hengwrt Community Sports Centre? By a border? Checking beats guessing, and so phone.
Pencaerau people: the short version
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep it off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Neath Port Talbot.