Rhoose: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Around Rhoose, finding it before your motor runs usually means a drain and a full flush on the spot. Reading in advance? In that case what follows covers how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the motor — but plenty of newer diesels seen about Rhoose and Tredogan hold another fluid too. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
There's a filler on each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think which filler it needs. It's in that gap that the slip lives.
Rhoose: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Fontygary Road before work, or in the car park at The Fontygary Inn on the way home.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. It's a few seconds, whether out in Font-y-gary or right in the centre of Rhoose.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Lower Porthkerry or a forecourt around Rhoose, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- Can't find it beside your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Rhoose Cardiff Airport, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in The Vale of Glamorgan that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Lon Cefn Mably.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Rhoose already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at Esso, Shell or another forecourt will normally help to push your car away when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Rhoose.
Where your engine has run by now, stop somewhere safe then switch the car off. On the M4, under 10 miles from Rhoose, that means the next exit. A short hop across Rhoose is a smaller job than a run towards Cardiff, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Rhoose: what occurs when our engineers arrive
Outside the local primary school, close to Rhoose Library or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. The replies decide the work and the price, so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. On the phone call itself, you are told the price — before dispatch.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is drained. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine has not run need about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Rhoose and where it is
Rhoose is a coastal village in the Vale of Glamorgan, situated near the town of Font-y-gary and the villages of Nurston and Fonmon. Rhoose sits at an elevation of 46 metres, overlooking the Bristol Channel, and is located approximately 9.9 miles from Cardiff. Rhoose has a population of around 1654 people, predominantly living in detached housing.
Rhoose and The Vale of Glamorgan: AdBlue drains across the area
Nurston and Fonmon are among the places around Rhoose, a coastal village, that the same teams cover, throughout CF postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts CF62 3, and our van gets there fastest.
The car doesn't need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Milburn Park, a side street close to Rhoose Community Hall: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Celtic Way Community Centre, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for Rhoose drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere in The Vale of Glamorgan.