AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St Asaph: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
Pause here for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your motor hasn't run, it's drained and fully cleaned where the vehicle is around St Asaph. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the motor — yet many newer diesels seen around St Asaph and Waen Goleugoed hold another liquid too. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. 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. Diesel gets filled at each filling station visit, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. It's in that gap that the slip happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in St Asaph
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Lower Street before work, or in the car park at Kentigern Arms on the way home.
New-to-you cars are next, as well. Rentals, new motors and company cars place their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it 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 once it has started. Pen-rhewl or the heart of St Asaph: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt in St Asaph or a drive over in Pengwern. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you collect a rental or company car — from Rhyl's car park, say — rather than when the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever across Denbighshire, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Mill Street.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found the filler and read the cap.
- Leave the 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.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip step five altogether.
St Asaph: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. Keep the ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Applegreen or the Texaco, ask the staff to help push the car away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in St Asaph.
Where your motor has been run already, pull over somewhere safe and turn the car off. Leave the Moreton Spur — under 25 miles out of St Asaph — at the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Liverpool, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across St Asaph.
What happens when our engineers get there around St Asaph
The van comes to the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside St. Kentigern's Chapel, or outside the local primary school. We ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because the replies determine the work and the quote. You hear that price by phone, before anybody heads out.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out on its own, no matter how long it is left. A test is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or changed as needed. Your engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run need about half an hour once our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About St Asaph
St Asaph is a small city situated on the banks of the River Elwy in Denbighshire, with a population of around 4183 people. St Asaph sits at a low elevation of 17 metres above sea level, near the villages of Pen-rhewl and The Roe. St Asaph is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its role as a residential centre in the region. St Asaph is located near the English border, approximately 21.9 miles from Liverpool and 184.9 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around St Asaph, and Denbighshire beyond
Being a cathedral city, St Asaph shares its vans surrounding places — The Roe, Tyn-y-ffordd — all the way through LL postcodes and the wider area around them. Fastest of all: quote a LL17 0 postcode to our van.
The car stays where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to St Asaph Common, a side street close to H M Stanley Obelisk: we drain the car where it sits. Tricky to explain, like the back of St Asaph Baptist Church? By a county line? Checking is better than assuming, and so ring.
St Asaph motorists: the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Denbighshire.