How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Rachub
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page aside for now, leave your ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Rachub. Reading in advance? Then what follows covers how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of current diesels on the roads about Rachub and Bethesda carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler it needs. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Rachub
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Water Street, or heading home in the car park outside Royal Oak.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: a new motor.
Third, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as easily, and after the pour starts, no part stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Rachub or out in Llanllechid.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Bontuchaf or a forecourt in Rachub, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On plenty of cars, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of cars show which belongs in each filler just there.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Bangor (Gwynedd).
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever in Gwynedd the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Fron Deg.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly through its own spout.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Find during the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Stage five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Rachub?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the EG Garages, the Asda or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Rachub.
Already run? Stop when it's sensible, then turn off. Rachub lies under 50 miles from the Moreton Spur; on it, use the next exit. Distance counts — a short hop across Rachub is a smaller job than driving under 5 miles to Bangor — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Rachub, and what happens next
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, near Carmel or on your own drive. The replies decide this work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run. No one heads out before you have had the price over the phone.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Your engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before our technicians leave.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Rachub, for a moment
Rachub is a small village in Gwynedd, situated on the coast of northwest Wales, with a mix of terraced housing and surrounded by nearby places like Llanllechid and Cilfodan. Rachub sits at an elevation of 189 metres, overlooking the coastline and within a short distance of Bangor. Rachub remains a quiet residential community, with a population of around 893 people. Rachub is located near other local areas, including Penybryn.
AdBlue drains around Rachub and across Gwynedd
Rachub is a coastal village, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Cilfodan and Penybryn among them, across the LL postcode area. Quickest of all: give a LL57 3 postcode to our van.
Moving your car is not necessary. Wherever it sits — near Bethel, on a layby en route to Bethesda Bowls Club, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Llanllechid Church.
The short version for Rachub people
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere in Gwynedd.