AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pontardawe: How It Happens and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Pontardawe. Here in advance? In that case what follows covers why it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels around Pontardawe and Llangiwg run, with diesel for the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Pontardawe
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Church Street, or outside The Other Place on the way home that evening.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Gellygron or the middle of Pontardawe: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Pontardawe or a driveway over in Rhyd-y-fro. Seconds, no more.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — at Skewen's car park, perhaps — not when 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 in Neath Port Talbot that is.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Dynevor Terrace.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Both under one flap? Then make sure the lid on your diesel filler is still closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Stop once your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly through its built-in spout.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Do not go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Pontardawe already?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Tesco, the another forecourt nearby or anywhere else. Your own drive around Pontardawe is the place it stays.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M4 — under 5 miles out of Pontardawe — at the next junction. A short hop across Pontardawe is a smaller job than a run towards Swansea, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Pontardawe, and what occurs next
Wherever the car came to rest, be it by the local primary school, near Pontardawe Arts Centre or at home, the van comes to it. The replies decide the work and our price, so we ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run. On the call itself, you hear the quote — before anything else.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. That is why it counts more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Then our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Pontardawe
Pontardawe is a town situated on the River Tawe in south Wales, with a population of around 7699 people. Pontardawe sits at an elevation of 44 metres, near the communities of Gellygron, Alltwen, and Craig Llangiwg. Pontardawe is located close to Swansea, about 8 miles to the south, and is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock. Pontardawe occupies a riverside setting, with the town's landscape shaped by the River Tawe.
AdBlue drains round Pontardawe, and Neath Port Talbot beyond
Over SA postcodes, the vans that cover Pontardawe — a riverside town — work the nearby locations too, Craig Llangiwg and Alltwen among them. Quote a postcode beginning SA8 4, and the van gets there quickest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to King George V Park, a side street close to Tŷ'r Gwrhyd: our technicians drain the car where it stands. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Pontardawe Library? By a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
In short, for Pontardawe people
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere across Neath Port Talbot.