Tenby: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Stop reading for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Tenby, catching it before your engine turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Not one fluid but two: that is how many modern diesels around Tenby and Gumfreston run, with diesel feeding your engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where a spray treats the gas.
There's a filler for each tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Tenby?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off White Lion Street, or heading home in the car park at Tap and Tân.
New-to-you motors come next, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as readily, and once the pour starts, no part halts it. The Green or the middle of Tenby: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Tenby forecourt or a driveway out in Twy Cross, take a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver will know. Ask when you pick up a rental or company car — at the nearest station's car park, perhaps — not when the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere in Pembrokeshire, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of South Parade.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Tenby?
Don't start your motor: that is where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
The staff at the nearest petrol station, Gulf or another forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle clear when asked. If you're on your own drive in Tenby, leave it where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Tenby lies under 50 miles from the M4; on it, take the next junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across Tenby makes a smaller job than heading under 50 miles to St Davids — so say about how far it went.
When our engineers arrive around Tenby, what happens?
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to St Johns Church or on your own driveway. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — which liquid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. The quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining your tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. After your filter has been flushed — or renewed, where required — clean diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after we get there, as long as your motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Tenby itself
Tenby is a seaside town in Pembrokeshire, situated on the south coast of Wales, with a population of around 3920 people. Tenby sits at an elevation of 31 metres, overlooking the Bristol Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. Tenby is characterised by its semi-detached housing and is close to nearby places such as The Green, Penally, and New Hedges. Tenby is approximately 196.7 miles from London and 28 miles from St Davids, the smallest city in the UK.
AdBlue drains around Tenby and across Pembrokeshire
Penally and New Hedges are among the places near Tenby, a coastal town, that the same vans cover, over SA postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SA70 7.
No need to move the car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Memorial Gardens, a side street near Deer Park Baptist Church: our engineers drain the car where it is. Guessing won't help behind Llewellyn's Gallery, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
In short, for Tenby motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Pembrokeshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.