Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Penllwyn
Pause here a minute if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where your car stands around Penllwyn, is usually what it takes if caught before your motor runs. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around Penllwyn and Pontllanfraith carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
There is a filler on each tank. Many of motors share a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
Penllwyn: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things lining up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and running out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Gelli Lane, or outside Bird in Hand on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: a new vehicle.
Nothing halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Gelligroes or the heart of Penllwyn: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt in Penllwyn or a driveway out in Cwmnantyrodyn. Seconds, no more.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — many vehicles show which goes in each filler right there.
- Can't find it beside your diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Hengoed? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever across Caerphilly, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Bryn Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Stage five is out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Penllwyn already?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the motor. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Texaco, the Esso or anywhere else. Your own driveway around Penllwyn is the place it stays.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction means the place to leave when you're on the M4, under 10 miles from Penllwyn. Distance counts — a quick hop across Penllwyn is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to Newport — so say roughly how far it went.
What happens when our technicians get there around Penllwyn
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, near Islwyn Indoor Bowls club or on your own drive. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because the replies decide both work and quote. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away by itself. Hence it counts more. Filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a check of your vehicle. Your engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers head off.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Penllwyn
Penllwyn is a suburban area in Caerphilly, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 163 metres. Penllwyn lies approximately 9.5 miles from Newport and is surrounded by nearby places such as Gelligroes, Bryn, and Gelli-haf. Penllwyn has a population of around 3806 people and predominantly features semi-detached housing.
Penllwyn and Caerphilly: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Penllwyn shares its vans nearby areas — Bryn, Gelli-haf — right through NP postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting NP12 2 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car does not need to shift. Anywhere it stands — near Pontllanfraith Methodist Church, in a layby heading to Primary Field Welfare Ground, on a drive — that's where it gets emptied. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Wyllie war memorial, close to a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
For Penllwyn people, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere around Caerphilly: keep it off and phone 0333 366 0103.