Pencoed: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause here for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Pencoed, finding it before your engine runs normally means draining and a thorough flush where it stands. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Not one fluid but two: that's how many modern diesels near Pencoed and Hendre run, with diesel for your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Pencoed
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Coychurch Road before work, or in the car park at The Chatterton Arms on the way home.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
No part stops the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, be it in Penprysg or bang in the centre of Pencoed.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt in Pencoed or a drive over in Brynnau Gwynion. Seconds, no more.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside the diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere across Bridgend the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and not in a rush by Hendre Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, and look once more — making sure the diesel filler remained closed the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Stage five is off limits.
Pencoed: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the pump. On your own drive around Pencoed? Then the vehicle stays where it is.
When the engine has been run already, stop somewhere safe then switch the car off. Come off the M4 — under a mile out of Pencoed — at the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Cardiff, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Pencoed.
When our engineers turn up in Pencoed, what happens?
Wherever the car has stopped, be it by the local primary school, beside Pencoed War Memorial or at home, the van comes to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three answers — which fluid, what amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. On the call itself, you are told our quote — before dispatch.
Draining that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and nothing clears out unaided, no matter how long it is left. Filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. Next our technicians start it and check it runs smoothly before we leave.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine has not run take roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Pencoed and where it is
Pencoed is a town situated on the banks of the River Ewenny in south Wales, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Pencoed lies close to the M4 motorway and is near the villages of Penprysg, Felindre, and Llanilid. Pencoed has a population of around 9119 people and is located about 14 miles from Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Pencoed is also relatively low-lying, with an average elevation of 33 metres above sea level.
AdBlue drains in Pencoed and across Bridgend
Felindre and Llanilid are among the towns around Pencoed, a riverside town, that the same vans cover, throughout CF postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a CF35 5 postcode for our van.
Your car doesn't need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Pencoed Rugby Club, a side street close to Pencoed Rugby Club: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Pencoed Church Hall, ring and ask rather than assuming.
In short, for Pencoed drivers
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere across Bridgend.