Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tirdeunaw
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where the car sits around Tirdeunaw, is normally what it needs when caught before your engine runs. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers how it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels on the roads about Tirdeunaw and Waun-Gron carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think which cap it needs. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Tirdeunaw
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Roger Street, or outside The Eagle Inn on the way home that evening.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as easily, and after the pour begins, nothing halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Tirdeunaw or out in Mynydd-bach.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Clase or a forecourt around Tirdeunaw, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many vehicles mark what goes in which inlet right there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Swansea, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, wherever across Swansea, use this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Plover Close.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It works.
- Leave the 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 and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to step five.
Tirdeunaw: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the Murco, ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump. If you are on your own drive in Tirdeunaw, leave the car where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. The next exit is the place to come off if you're on the M4, under 3 miles from Tirdeunaw. A short hop across Tirdeunaw is a smaller job than a run towards Swansea, under 3 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when we arrive around Tirdeunaw
Anywhere your car came to rest, whether by the local primary school, near Penlan Leisure Centre or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Which fluid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those replies set the work and quote. You get that quote by phone, before anybody sets off.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of that washes out unaided, however long it is left. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Tirdeunaw, briefly
Tirdeunaw is a suburban area situated on the outskirts of Swansea, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Tirdeunaw sits at an elevation of 138 metres, overlooking the coastal city of Swansea and the surrounding landscape. Tirdeunaw is close to nearby places such as Mynydd-bach and Tre-boeth, and is located approximately 2.6 miles from Swansea city centre. Tirdeunaw has a population of around 4311 residents, living in a predominantly semi-detached housing stock.
AdBlue drains about Tirdeunaw, and Swansea beyond
Being a residential suburb, Tirdeunaw shares its vans nearby places — Mynydd-Garn-Lwyd, Tre-boeth — right through SA postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Give a postcode beginning SA5 9, and the van arrives quickest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. We drain it where it is — a side street near Morris Castle, a lay-by on the way to Knoyle Park, a drive. Assuming won't help behind Penlan Community Centre and Library, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
Tirdeunaw motorists: the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, wherever across Swansea: keep the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.