AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ynysmeudwy: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
Keep the engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, when the engine hasn't turned, it is emptied and thoroughly flushed where your car is in Ynysmeudwy. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels around Cilybebyll, as well as Ynysmeudwy, run on two fluids; your motor gets just your diesel. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the gas.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two side by side behind one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Ynysmeudwy: how it takes place
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Bethesda Road, or at Ynysmeudwy Arms on the way home after work.
New-to-you vehicles come next, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it 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 tip once it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Ynysmeudwy or out in Cilmaengwyn.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Gellinudd or a forecourt in Ynysmeudwy, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- Cannot see it next to your diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook will say where.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Neath, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light appears — anywhere it is around Neath Port Talbot — a routine to follow.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine off, and never rushed by Ynys-Meudwy Road on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Ynysmeudwy?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or the Tesco, ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the pump. If you're on your own driveway around Ynysmeudwy, leave the vehicle where it is.
Already run? Stop once it's sensible, then turn off. On the M4, under 5 miles from Ynysmeudwy, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Ynysmeudwy is less a job than a trip of under 10 miles towards Swansea, so say.
When our engineers turn up in Ynysmeudwy, what occurs?
The van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Tŷ'r Gwrhyd, or by the local primary school. Those replies determine the work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out unaided. Hence it matters more. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Ynysmeudwy itself
Ynysmeudwy is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Neath Port Talbot, with a relatively low elevation of 65 metres. Ynysmeudwy lies close to the nearby communities of Cilmaengwyn, Craig Llangiwg, and Llangiwg, and is approximately 9 miles from Swansea. Ynysmeudwy has a population of around 726 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Neath Port Talbot, Ynysmeudwy included
Craig Llangiwg and Llangiwg are among the towns near Ynysmeudwy, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout SA postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts SA8 4, and the van arrives quickest.
No need to move the vehicle. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Pontardawe Library, a lay-by on the way to Ynysmeudwy Park, a driveway. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Pontardawe Arts Centre, ring and ask rather than assuming.
In short, for Ynysmeudwy motorists
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Neath Port Talbot.