AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in The W auns: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
Stop here a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your motor hasn't turned, it's emptied and fully cleaned where the car is around The W auns. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it happens and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many current diesels on the roads around The W auns and Little Mountain carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in the gap that the error happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in The W auns: how it happens
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle 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 Ashbourne Avenue before work, or in the car park at Clayton Arms on the way home.
Unfamiliar vehicles are next, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers differently, 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, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. It's a few seconds, whether in Gwersyllt or right in the heart of The W auns.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Moss or a forecourt in The W auns, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Gwersyllt? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Wrexham that is.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Delamere Avenue.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located your 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.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check once more — confirm your diesel filler remained shut throughout. After that, start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five entirely.
The W auns: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. Top of that: the motor remains unstarted. Leave your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts your fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Shell, the Smithy View Service Station or somewhere else. At home around The W auns? Then your car stays where it is.
Where the motor has run already, stop safely and switch the car off. On the M53, under 15 miles from The W auns, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Wrexham, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across The W auns.
When our engineers arrive in The W auns, what occurs?
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to Gwyn Evans Leisure and Activity Centre or on your own drive. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — what liquid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. Nobody sets off before you've had our quote over the phone.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. The filter cleaned or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. Before we leave, we start it and confirm that it's running properly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About The W auns and where it is
The W auns is a suburban area located near Wrexham in northeast Wales, sitting at an elevation of 87 metres in a generally low-lying inland setting. The W auns is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock and is situated close to nearby places such as Gwersyllt and Bradley. The W auns is a relatively small community, with a population of around 3283 people, and is approximately 2.3 miles from the centre of Wrexham.
AdBlue drains across Wrexham, The W auns included
Throughout LL postcodes, our teams covering The W auns — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Summer Hill and Bradley included. A postcode starting LL11 4 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to move the vehicle. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Gwersyllt Cricket Club, a side street near Wheatsheaf English Congregational Church: we drain it where it sits. Assuming doesn't help behind Summerhill Village Institute, close to a border, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
The short version for The W auns drivers
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Wrexham.