Troedyrhiw: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause reading a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Troedyrhiw. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the why it happens and the ways to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the motor — yet plenty of modern diesels seen about Troedyrhiw and Bedlinog hold a second liquid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of cars 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 petrol pump all the time. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Troedyrhiw?
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Yew Street, perhaps at the pub in the village on the way home after work.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Troedyrhiw or out in Pentrebach.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Upper Abercanaid or a forecourt around Troedyrhiw, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of cars show what goes in which inlet right there.
- The handbook says where it lives when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Troed-Y-Rhiw, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, anywhere across Merthyr Tydfil, follow this routine.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush by Enoch Morrell Close at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Finish once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through the own spout.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Don't carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Troedyrhiw?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — Applegreen, Esso or another — the staff will normally help roll the car clear, when you ask. If you are on your own driveway around Troedyrhiw, leave it where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. Troedyrhiw sits under 15 miles from the M4; there, take the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Newport, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Troedyrhiw.
When our engineers turn up in Troedyrhiw, what occurs?
The van reaches your car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside St John's Church, or by the local primary school. Which fluid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the answers set both work and quote. On the phone call itself, you hear our price — before anything else.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out unaided. That is why it matters more. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Before we go, our engineers start it and confirm that it's running correctly.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor has not run take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Troedyrhiw and where it is
Troedyrhiw is a village situated in the county of Merthyr Tydfil, alongside the River Taff in south Wales. Troedyrhiw has a mix of old and new housing, with many traditional terraced homes, and is located near the communities of Pentrebach, Abercanaid, and Aberfan. Troedyrhiw sits at an elevation of around 140 metres above sea level, with the city of Newport approximately 17 miles to the south. Troedyrhiw is a relatively small village, with a population of around 2077 people.
Troedyrhiw and Merthyr Tydfil: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout CF postcodes, our vans covering Troedyrhiw — a village — work the nearby places too, Aberfan and Abercanaid among them. Fastest of all: quote a CF48 4 postcode for our van.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. Anywhere it sits — near NHS, in a layby en route to Troedyrhiw Park, at home — that's where it gets drained. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Ss Peter & Paul Church, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
The short version for Troedyrhiw drivers
Always, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep it switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Merthyr Tydfil.