Trebanos: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the engine has not run, it is drained and fully flushed where the car sits around Trebanos. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Not one fluid but two: that's what many modern diesels around Trebanos and Pontardawe carry, with diesel for your motor. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
There is a filler for each tank. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think which cap to use. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Trebanos: how it happens
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off The Green, or on the way home in the car park outside the pub in the village.
New-to-you vehicles come next, as well. Rentals, new cars and company cars put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and after the tip starts, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Trebanos or out in Craig-y-Duke.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Gellygron or a forecourt around Trebanos, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- On plenty of motors, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Skewen.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever across Neath Port Talbot the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and not rushed beside Morgan Street at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both share a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly using its own spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find during the second or third stage that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
Trebanos: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the engine. Keep your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it by itself starts the pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, Tesco or any forecourt will normally help to push the car clear when asked. Your own driveway in Trebanos is the place it should stay.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M4 — under 3 miles out of Trebanos — at the first junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Swansea, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Trebanos.
What happens when our engineers get there around Trebanos
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to Pontardawe Leisure Centre or on your own driveway. Our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because those answers determine this work and our price. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then that tank is emptied and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and confirm that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Trebanos and where it is
Trebanos is a small village situated on the riverside in Neath Port Talbot, with a population of around 905 people. Trebanos has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are the most common, and the village is located near other small communities like Craig-y-Duke and Penydre. Trebanos sits at an elevation of 35 metres, close to the city of Swansea, which is about 7 miles away. Trebanos is part of the wider Swansea urban area, but retains its own distinct character.
AdBlue drains about Trebanos, and Neath Port Talbot beyond
Trebanos is a village, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Penydre and Alltwen among them, across the SA postcode area. Fastest of all: give a SA8 4 postcode to our van.
The car remains put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Trebanos Park, a side street close to Pontardawe Arts Centre: our technicians drain the vehicle where it stands. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St Benedict's Roman Catholic Church.
In short, for Trebanos drivers
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the car switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Neath Port Talbot.