Rhondda: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down for now, keep the ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where your vehicle sits in Rhondda, is normally what it takes when caught before your motor runs. Here before the event? Then the rest covers how it happens and how to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels in Ystrad, as well as Rhondda, run on two liquids; your engine gets just the diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Plenty of motors have a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Rhondda
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Bailey Street, or on the way home in the car park at The Windsor.
Unfamiliar cars are next, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company motors place their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap 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 pour, after started, keeps on. It's a few seconds, whether out in Ton Pentre or bang in the centre of Rhondda.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Cwmparc or a forecourt in Rhondda, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Ton Pentre, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Rhondda Cynon Taf that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Church Street, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look once more — confirm the diesel cap remained shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Leave out step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Rhondda?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Texaco or the Shell, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Rhondda.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Rhondda lies under 10 miles from the M4; on it, take the first junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across Rhondda is a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Cardiff — so say about how far it went.
Rhondda: what happens when our technicians arrive
The van reaches the car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, near Ystrad English Congregational Church, or outside the local primary school. What fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask since the answers decide the work and price. That quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then your tank is emptied and your system purged thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and nothing washes away on its own, no matter how long it sits. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. The engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after we get there, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Rhondda
Rhondda is a town situated in the Rhondda Valley in south Wales, alongside the River Rhondda. Rhondda has a population of around 9696 people and is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing. Rhondda is located near other communities such as Ton Pentre, Pentre, and Gelli, and is approximately 17.7 miles north of Cardiff. Rhondda sits at an elevation of 155 metres above sea level, in a riverside setting.
Rhondda and Rhondda Cynon Taf: AdBlue drains across the area
Pentre and Gelli are among the places near Rhondda, a riverside town, that the same teams cover, throughout CF postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning CF41 7, and our van arrives quickest.
Shifting your car is not needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Pentre Park, a side street close to The Phoenix: our engineers drain the vehicle where it is. Guessing won't help at the back of St John the Baptist, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
The short version for Rhondda drivers
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere around Rhondda Cynon Taf.