Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St Julians: Why It Occurs
Stop reading a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around St Julians. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your engine — but many modern diesels driven round St Julians and Barnardtown hold a second liquid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
There is a filler on every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in St Julians: how it happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Worcester Crescent, or at St Julian Inn on the way home that evening.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of St Julians or out in Summerhill.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these first, on a forecourt around St Julians or a drive out in East Usk. A few seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- On plenty of motors, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to the diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you pick up a rental or company car — at Newport (South Wales)'s car park, perhaps — not once the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Newport that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Badminton Road.
- 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 it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look once more — making sure your diesel cap remained shut the whole time. After that, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in St Julians?
Brief list, then. First: the engine stays unstarted. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the attendants to help push your car away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the Sainsbury's or somewhere else. Your own driveway around St Julians is the place it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. St Julians lies under a mile from the M4; there, take the first exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across St Julians is less work than a trip of under 3 miles towards Newport, and so tell us.
Our arrival in St Julians, and what happens next
The van comes to your car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near St Julian's Library, or outside the local primary school. Which fluid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask because the answers set both work and quote. No one heads out before you have had the quote over the phone.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out on its own, however long it sits. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About St Julians, briefly
St Julians is a suburban area in Newport, situated near the coast of Wales, with an elevation of around 44 metres. St Julians is located close to the city centre of Newport, approximately 1.5 miles away, and is near other suburban areas such as Summerhill and Beechwood. St Julians has a population of around 5614 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. St Julians is also within a short distance of historic sites like Caerleon.
AdBlue drains in St Julians and across Newport
St Julians is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Beechwood and Caerleon among them, across the NP postcode area. Give a postcode beginning NP19 7, and the van gets there quickest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. Draining happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a street by Beaufort Centre, or a layby towards Kelly Road Play Area. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St Julian's Methodist Church.
For St Julians drivers, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Newport.