AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Two Locks: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Keep your engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Two Locks. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the motor — but many current diesels driven round Two Locks and Old Cwmbran hold a second fluid as well. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two together behind one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Much less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
Two Locks: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Two Locks Road, or at Waterloo Inn on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: a strange car.
No part halts the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Two Locks or out in Ty Coch.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Two Locks forecourt or a driveway over in Southville, spend a few seconds on these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On many vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Cwmbran? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are in Torfaen — a routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Gifford Close.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then look once more — confirm your diesel cap remained shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Leave out step five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Two Locks?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at Shell, Sainsbury's or another forecourt will usually help pushing your car away if asked. On your own drive around Two Locks? Then the car stays put.
Already run? Stop when it's safe, then switch off. On the M4, under 3 miles from Two Locks, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Two Locks is smaller work than a run of under 5 miles to Newport, so say.
When our engineers arrive in Two Locks, what takes place?
Outside the local primary school, close to Crucifix or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Which liquid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the answers set the work and quote. No one sets off before you have heard the quote over the phone.
Then that tank is emptied and the system flushed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out on its own, no matter how long it is left. Filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your car. Next our technicians start it and confirm it runs properly before leaving.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine hasn't run take about half an hour after we arrive. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Two Locks, briefly
Two Locks is a suburban area in Torfaen, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 64 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Two Locks is located near the city of Newport, approximately 4 miles away, and is close to nearby places such as Ty Coch, St Dials, and Hollybush. Two Locks has a population of around 5665 people and is part of the wider urban area surrounding Newport.
Two Locks and Torfaen: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Two Locks shares its vans nearby places — St Dials, Hollybush — right through NP postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting NP44 7 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle stays where it is. Wherever it sits — beside John Williams Fielding VC, in a lay-by heading to Cwmbran Park, on a drive — that's where it is emptied. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Cwmbran Stadium, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Two Locks drivers: the short version
Tip nothing until you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, wherever across Torfaen: switch it off and call 0333 366 0103.