Thomastown: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Stop reading a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your engine hasn't run, it is drained and thoroughly rinsed where the car is around Thomastown. Here before the event? Then what follows covers why it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that is how many newer diesels around Thomastown and Coedely run, with diesel for your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
There is a filler on every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
Thomastown: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a drive off Tylcha Wen Terrace before work, or in the car park outside Boars Head heading home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, keeps on. It's seconds, whether in Tyn-y-bryn or right in the centre of Thomastown.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Thomastown forecourt or a drive out in Rhiwinder, take a couple of seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it beside the diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Llanharan.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light appears — wherever you are in Rhondda Cynon Taf — a simple routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Bethania Hill.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both sit under a flap, make sure it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip gently using its built-in spout.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Step five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Thomastown?
Brief order, then. Top of it: the motor remains unstarted. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Gulf or the another forecourt nearby, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the pump. If you're on your own driveway around Thomastown, leave the car where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Leave the M4 — under 5 miles out of Thomastown — at the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Cardiff, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Thomastown.
When we get there in Thomastown, what takes place?
By the local primary school, near Coedely Community Centre or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Those answers determine this work and our quote, so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. No one sets off before you've had the quote over the phone.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away unaided. That is why it matters more. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Your engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before we leave.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Thomastown and where it is
Thomastown is a suburban area in Rhondda Cynon Taf, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 116 metres. Thomastown lies near the communities of Tyn-y-bryn, Tonyrefail, and Bryngolau, and is approximately 12.6 miles from Cardiff. Thomastown has a population of around 2048 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Thomastown is also relatively close to the Welsh capital, with London being around 141.9 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Rhondda Cynon Taf, Thomastown included
Throughout CF postcodes, the vans covering Thomastown — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Bryngolau and Tonyrefail included. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting CF39 8.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a street by Saint David's Church, or a layby on the way to Dai's Park. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Capel Farm Community Centre.
The short version for Thomastown people
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the car off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Rhondda Cynon Taf.