Penlan: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause reading for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. In Penlan, finding it before the motor turns usually means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Here in advance? Then the rest covers why it comes about and how to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to the motor — yet many current diesels seen round Penlan and Garreg carry another liquid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two side by side under one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Penlan: how it takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
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 A487 before work, or in the car park at Royal Oak on the way home.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Nothing stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Penrhyndeudraeth or the heart of Penlan: it takes the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Bryn Bwbach or a forecourt around Penlan, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- The handbook says where it is when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Penrhyndeudraeth? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Gwynedd that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Griffin Industrial Estate.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The two behind one flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel side is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Step five is out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Penlan?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Esso, Shell or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the vehicle away when asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Penlan.
Where the motor has been run already, pull over safely then switch the vehicle off. On the Moreton Spur, over 50 miles from Penlan, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Bangor, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Penlan.
Penlan: what takes place when we get there
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to Y Neuadd Goffa or on your own drive. Both the work and our quote depend on three replies — which liquid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. Nobody heads out until you've had the quote by phone.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out unaided. That is why it matters more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it's running properly.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Penlan, for a moment
Penlan is a small coastal suburban area in Gwynedd, situated near the towns of Penrhyndeudraeth and Minffordd. Penlan lies at a low elevation of around 13 metres, close to the shores of the Irish Sea. Penlan is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting the area's history of dense residential development. Penlan is located approximately 20 miles from the city of Bangor, and is part of the wider coastal community in north-west Wales.
AdBlue drains round Penlan, and Gwynedd beyond
Minffordd and Llandecwyn are among the places around Penlan, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout LL postcodes. Give a postcode beginning LL48 6, and the van arrives quickest.
The vehicle remains put. Anywhere it sits — near Bethel, on a lay-by en route to Coed Hafod-talog, at home — that is where it gets emptied. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Penrhyndeudraeth Library? By a border? Checking beats guessing, so phone.
Penlan drivers: the short version
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere across Gwynedd.