AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stop-and-Call: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, leave your ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the engine has not run, it is emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle is in Stop-and-Call. Here before the event? Then what follows explains how it comes about and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Not one fluid but two: that is what many newer diesels around Stop-and-Call and Cilau carry, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both together under one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think which cap to use. It is in the gap that the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Stop-and-Call
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Heol Penlan, or at Hope and Anchor on the way home that evening.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
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 after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Stop-and-Call or out in Goodwick.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Llanwnda or a forecourt in Stop-and-Call, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many motors show what goes in each filler right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Fishguard & Goodwick? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Pembrokeshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Maesgrug, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but 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.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel filler remained closed the whole time. After that, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Step five stays out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Stop-and-Call?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Leave the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it by itself runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the another forecourt nearby or anywhere else. If you are on your own drive in Stop-and-Call, leave the car where it stands.
When your motor has run by now, stop somewhere safe and turn the car off. Come off the M4 — under 50 miles out of Stop-and-Call — at the next junction. Distance matters — a short hop across Stop-and-Call makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards St Davids — so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when our technicians turn up in Stop-and-Call
By the local primary school, close to Phoenix Community Centre or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — what fluid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so we ask. That quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out unaided, no matter how long it is left. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Stop-and-Call
Stop-and-Call is a suburban area in Pembrokeshire, situated on the coast of Wales with an elevation of 109 metres. Stop-and-Call lies near the towns of Goodwick and Harbour Village, and is close to the city of St Davids, which is 14 miles away. Stop-and-Call has a population of around 1437 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains about Stop-and-Call, and Pembrokeshire beyond
Throughout SA postcodes, our teams that cover Stop-and-Call — a residential suburb — work the nearby locations too, Dyffryn and Harbour Village among them. Quote a postcode that starts SA64 0, and the van arrives fastest.
Your car does not need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to The Rec, a side street close to Garnwnda Burial Chamber: we drain the car where it stands. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Ocean Lab? By a county line? Asking beats assuming, so ring.
Stop-and-Call people: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave it off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Pembrokeshire.