How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tre-gynwr
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Tre-gynwr. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your engine — yet many current diesels seen about Tre-gynwr and Bolahaul Fm carry another liquid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which cap it needs. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Tre-gynwr
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Capel Dewi Road, or outside Castle Hotel on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar cars are next, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Pen-sarn or the middle of Tre-gynwr: it is the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Tanerdy or a forecourt around Tre-gynwr.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Carmarthen's car park, say — not when the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across Carmarthenshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Ger Y Nant, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found your filler and read it.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Tre-gynwr?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. 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 at a forecourt, whether it is the Texaco or the Gulf, ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the petrol pump. At home in Tre-gynwr? Then your car stays put.
Already started? Stop when it is sensible, then switch off. On the M4, under 15 miles from Tre-gynwr, that means the next junction. Distance matters — a quick hop across Tre-gynwr is a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Swansea — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Tre-gynwr, and what occurs next
The van comes to the car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Carmarthen Evangelical Church, or by the local primary school. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask since those answers decide both work and quote. Nobody heads out before you have heard the price by phone.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, after your tank is drained. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and nothing washes out unaided, no matter how long it sits. After the fuel filter is cleaned — or renewed, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your car gets tested. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it is running smoothly.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run need about half an hour once our engineers are there. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Tre-gynwr, for a moment
Tre-gynwr is a suburban area in Carmarthenshire, situated on the riverside at a low elevation of 19 metres. Tre-gynwr lies near the towns of Carmarthen and Pen-sarn, and is within commuting distance of Swansea. Tre-gynwr has a population of around 1152 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Tre-gynwr is located in a scenic part of Wales, with easy access to the surrounding countryside.
Tre-gynwr and Carmarthenshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Tre-gynwr is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Llangunnor and Carmarthen among them, across the SA postcode area. A postcode starting SA31 2 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to move the vehicle. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street by Oak Leaves, or a layby on the way to Llangunnor Community Park. Guessing won't help behind Great War Memorial, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
Tre-gynwr drivers: the short version
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Carmarthenshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.