Pentre: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, keep the ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor has not run, it's emptied and thoroughly flushed where the car is around Pentre. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that's what many modern diesels near Pentre and Leadmill run, with diesel for your engine. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Pentre
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and running dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Ffordd Pentre, or at Queen's Head on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: an unfamiliar vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Pentre or out in Glanyrafon.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Pwll-Glas or a forecourt in Pentre, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Buckley, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Wherever around Flintshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Woodlands Close, not on a slope, not with the engine 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, perhaps, yet it works.
- Both under one flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel side is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Stop once the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Pentre?
Do not start your motor: that's where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Diluting it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Tesco, Esso or another — the staff will normally help push your car clear, if you ask. Your own drive in Pentre is the place it should stay.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leave the M56 — under 10 miles out of Pentre — at the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Wrexham, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Pentre.
Our arrival in Pentre, and what occurs next
The van comes to the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Church of Saint David, or outside the local primary school. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, since those answers determine this work and our quote. On the phone call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of dispatch.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out unaided, no matter how long it is left. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our engineers get there, provided the motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Pentre, for a moment
Pentre is a suburban area in Flintshire, Wales, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 107 metres. Pentre is located near the towns of Mold and Wrexham, with neighbouring communities including Glanyrafon and Ponterwyl. Pentre has a population of approximately 1999 residents, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type in the area. Pentre is about 10 miles from Wrexham and 170 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Flintshire, Pentre included
Pentre is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Ponterwyl and Mold among them, across the CH postcode area. Fastest of all: give a CH7 1 postcode to our van.
Moving the car is not necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to The Rec, a side street close to Bethesda: we drain the car where it is. Assuming won't help at the back of Ebenezer Baptist Chapel, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
For Pentre motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Flintshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off then call 0333 366 0103.