Spelter: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Spelter, finding it before your motor turns normally means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Reading in advance? In that case what follows covers why it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many modern diesels in Twmpath-Mawr, as well as Spelter, run on two liquids; the motor takes only your 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.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place both together behind one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what filler to use. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Spelter
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Dyffryn Place before work, or in the car park at Riverboat 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 the hand gets to 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, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Dyffryn or the middle of Spelter: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Brynheulog or a forecourt in Spelter.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many vehicles mark which goes in each filler right there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Maesteg? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere in Bridgend, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and never rushed by Coegnant Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Finish once that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip gently using its own spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out step five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Spelter?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Oils for Wales, the another forecourt nearby or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Spelter.
Already started? Pull over once it is sensible, then turn off. On the M4, under 10 miles from Spelter, that means the next exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Spelter is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Swansea — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Spelter: what happens when our engineers get there
By the local primary school, near Llynfi BMX or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since the answers decide the work and price. No one sets off before you've had our price by phone.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. 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. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Then we start the car and confirm it runs smoothly before we go.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Spelter, for a moment
Spelter is a suburban area in Bridgend, situated on the riverside with an elevation of 167 metres. Spelter lies near the communities of Dyffryn, Caerau, and Nantyffyllon, and is approximately 12 miles from Swansea. Spelter has a population of around 2358 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Spelter is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of 151 miles.
AdBlue drains round Spelter, and Bridgend beyond
Throughout CF postcodes, the teams covering Spelter — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Nantyffyllon and Caerau among them. Quickest of all: give a CF34 0 postcode to our van.
The car does not need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Tudor Park, a side street close to Keeper Of The Collieries: our engineers drain the car where it is. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Chapel of Rest, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For Spelter motorists, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Bridgend, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.