Pontnewydd: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In Pontnewydd, finding it before the motor turns usually leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Pontnewydd and Lowlands carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Pontnewydd
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off William Street before work, or in the car park at Oddfellows Arms on the way home.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Pontnewydd or out in Northville.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Forge Hammer or a forecourt around Pontnewydd.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, 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 outside Cwmbran, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — wherever you are in Torfaen — a routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor off, and not in a rush beside St Anne's Close at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Pontnewydd already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Keep the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone starts your fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Texaco, the Morrisons or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Pontnewydd.
Where your engine has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe then turn it off. Come off the M4 — under 5 miles out of Pontnewydd — at the next exit. A short hop across Pontnewydd is a smaller job than a run towards Newport, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Pontnewydd, and what happens next
By the local primary school, close to St David's RC Church or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — which liquid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. During the phone call itself, you are told our quote — before anything else.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of the car. Before we go, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it's running smoothly.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Pontnewydd itself
Pontnewydd is a suburban area in Torfaen, situated on the banks of the Afon Lwyd river at an elevation of 74 metres. Pontnewydd lies approximately 5 miles north of Newport and is part of the wider Cwmbran urban area. Pontnewydd has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes. Pontnewydd is close to nearby communities such as Northville and Pontrhydyrun.
Pontnewydd and Torfaen: AdBlue drains across the area
As a residential suburb, Pontnewydd has the same vans as nearby places — Pontrhydyrun, Cwmbran — right through NP postcodes and the wider area beyond. Give a postcode beginning NP44 1, and our van gets there quickest.
Moving the car is not necessary. Anywhere it stands — beside Ebenezer Evangelical Church, in a layby heading to Cwmbran RFC, on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. Guessing won't help behind Cwmbran Centre for Young People, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
Pontnewydd people: the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Torfaen.