AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tan-y-maes: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
Pause reading for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where your vehicle stands around Tan-y-maes, is normally what it takes when caught before the motor runs. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of current diesels on the roads about Tan-y-maes and Bethel carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
There's a filler for every tank. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two side by side behind one flap. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The error lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Tan-y-maes?
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and running out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Tan y Maes, or at Garddfon Inn on the way home after work.
New-to-you vehicles are second, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company motors put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Y Wern or the middle of Tan-y-maes, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Aber Pwll or a forecourt around Tan-y-maes.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- The previous driver knows. Check when you collect a hire car or company car — at Llanfairpwll's car park, perhaps — not once the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Gwynedd that is.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush beside Tafarngrisiau Rd 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.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check once more — making sure your diesel cap remained closed throughout. Only then, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Tan-y-maes?
Do not start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Essar, Morrisons or any other — the attendants will usually help push the car away, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Tan-y-maes.
Already run? Pull over when it is safe, then turn off. Tan-y-maes sits under 50 miles from the Moreton Spur; there, take the next junction. A short hop across Tan-y-maes is a smaller job than a run towards Bangor, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers arrive in Tan-y-maes
Wherever your car has stopped, be it outside the local primary school, beside Eglwys y Santes Fair or at home, the van comes to it. The replies determine this work and the quote, so we ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run. The price comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then that tank is emptied and the system rinsed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out on its own, no matter how long it is left. The filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of the car. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and confirm that it's running properly.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take roughly half an hour after our technicians are there. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Tan-y-maes itself
Tan-y-maes is a small suburban area situated on the north Welsh coast, approximately 5 miles from Bangor in Gwynedd. Tan-y-maes has a relatively low elevation of 72 metres and is surrounded by nearby places such as Y Wern, Y Felinheli, and Saron. Tan-y-maes is characterised by its semi-detached housing stock, which is typical of many similar areas in the region. Tan-y-maes is located some 207 miles from London, but its coastal setting and proximity to Bangor make it a desirable residential location.
AdBlue drains around Tan-y-maes and across Gwynedd
Y Felinheli and Saron are among the places near Tan-y-maes, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over LL postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a LL56 4 postcode to the van.
The vehicle stays where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Coed Llanfair, a side street near Greenwood Family Park: we drain it where it sits. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Forest Theatre.
Tan-y-maes motorists: the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Gwynedd, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.