Plas Madoc: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, leave the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where your vehicle sits in Plas Madoc, is usually what it needs if found before the motor runs. Reading before the event? In that case the rest covers why it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels in Cefn-mawr, like those in Plas Madoc, run on two fluids; your engine gets just your diesel. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
There's a filler on every tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
Plas Madoc: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Hampton Way, or at Hampden Arms on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar vehicles come second, as well. Rentals, new motors and company cars put their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once begun, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Plas Madoc or out in Rhosymedre.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Pont Cysyllte or a forecourt around Plas Madoc, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of motors mark which belongs in each filler just there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you pick up a rental or fleet car — at Ruabon's car park, say — rather than once the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Wrexham that is.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Llangollen Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Step five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Plas Madoc already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Shell, the Esso or somewhere else. If you're on your own driveway around Plas Madoc, leave the vehicle where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M53, under 25 miles from Plas Madoc, that means the next exit. Mileage counts — a short hop across Plas Madoc is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Wrexham — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Plas Madoc, and what takes place next
Outside Weston Rhyn Primary School, near Plas Madoc Leisure and Activity Centre or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — what liquid, which amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. After your filter is cleaned — or replaced, if required — clean diesel is added, and then your vehicle gets tested. After that we fire it up and check it runs properly before we leave.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine hasn't run take roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Plas Madoc itself
Plas Madoc is a village in Wrexham county, situated inland at an elevation of around 140 metres, approximately 5 miles from Wrexham city. Plas Madoc is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing and is located near other communities such as Rhosymedre and Acrefair. Plas Madoc has a population of around 2620 residents, making it a small but distinct community in the area. Plas Madoc is also relatively distant from major cities like London, being around 161 miles away.
Plas Madoc and Wrexham: AdBlue drains across the area
Aber-nant and Acrefair are among the towns around Plas Madoc, a rural village, that the same vans cover, over LL postcodes. Quickest of all: give a LL14 3 postcode to our van.
Shifting the car isn't needed. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Gardden Wood, a side street close to St John's: our engineers drain the vehicle where it is. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Rhiwabon Leisure and Activity Centre, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
The short version for Plas Madoc drivers
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Wrexham.