Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Trehafod: Why It Occurs
Leave the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where your car sits in Trehafod, is normally all it needs if found before the engine runs. Reading before the event? Then the rest covers why it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many current diesels on the roads around Trehafod and Troedrhiw-Trwyn carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two together behind one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what cap to use. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Trehafod
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off Trehafod Road before work, or in the car park at The Llwyncelyn on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the tip starts, nothing stops it. Llwyncelyn or the heart of Trehafod: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, on a forecourt around Trehafod or a driveway out in Glynfach. A few seconds, no more.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you collect a rental or fleet car — at the nearest station's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever you are around Rhondda Cynon Taf — a routine to use.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and never in a rush by A4058 on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — once you've found your filler and read it.
- Both under one flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel side stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Trehafod already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Texaco, Asda or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the car away, when you ask. Your own driveway in Trehafod is the place it should stay.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M4, under 10 miles from Trehafod, that means the next exit. Mileage counts — a short hop across Trehafod is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles to Cardiff — so tell us about how far it went.
When our engineers arrive around Trehafod, what happens?
Our van comes to your car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Trehafod Memorial Hall and Institute, or by the local primary school. Those replies determine the work and our price, so our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. On the phone call itself, you are told our price — ahead of anything else.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, once your tank is emptied. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Next we start the engine and confirm it runs correctly before we leave.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine has not run need roughly half an hour once we arrive. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Trehafod itself
Trehafod is a small suburban area situated on the riverside in Rhondda Cynon Taf, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Trehafod sits at an elevation of 74 metres, near the communities of Llwyncelyn and Hopkinstown. Trehafod is located close to the Welsh capital, with Cardiff just 12.6 miles away, and is part of the wider urban area along the river. Trehafod has a population of around 1350 residents.
AdBlue drains across Rhondda Cynon Taf, Trehafod included
Over CF postcodes, the teams covering Trehafod — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Hopkinstown and Britannia among them. Fastest of all: give a CF37 2 postcode for the van.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Trehafod Community Village Hall, a lay-by on the way to Bronwydd Park, a driveway. Guessing won't help at the back of Rhondda Heritage Park, close to a border, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
The short version for Trehafod motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, wherever in Rhondda Cynon Taf: switch the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.