Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Aberdare
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens until your engine sucks it through. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and carefully flushed where your car stands in Aberdare. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Aberdare, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Take your keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting CF44 7, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to move your car.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not thin it.
- Leave the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way along High Street.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
The attendants working at any Aberdare forecourt — the Tesco among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave the car just where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. From a separate reservoir it goes straight to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine lets out. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, since it's denser than diesel, and pools down where the intake draws its fuel from. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Trecynon yesterday evening and left unstarted is the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but when your motor runs, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
It does two kinds of damage from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the parts it reaches for as long as it stays there. By daybreak, a car parked in Aberdare with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it is only inside the tank, it doesn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a second kind of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Texaco and you have a problem of thin fuel. Harm only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and left inside the tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It does not burn, so it can't simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Aberaman or the middle of Aberdare.
As with petrol, there's good news. Anywhere across Rhondda Cynon Taf your vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Aberdare?
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, now and then behind a single flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside the local primary school the refill is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Canon Street. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The Cambria, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least known cars see it most — hire cars, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the spare vehicle of a home with both fuels. Anywhere around Rhondda Cynon Taf, Aberdare as well, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Aberdare?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Given any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through the fuel filter and lines.
You may notice the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Aberdare Park or halfway across Aberdare. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Leave the vehicle off rather than restarting it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Aberdare sits under 15 miles from the M4; if you were on it, leave by the first junction and pull up safely rather than carrying on.
Distance counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, so driving towards Cardiff, under 25 miles away, gives a far bigger job than crossing Aberdare to the car park by Aberdare Methodist Church. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the motor has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. Caught early, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Aberdare
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Aberdare: a side street near Aberdare Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether the engine has been run, because those answers determine this work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together after that tank is emptied, right there. A full flush matters much more after AdBlue than with petrol, since residue will not clear out by itself. Testing your vehicle comes last, after fresh diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets flushed or, if needed, swapped. Not run? Then count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Last, your system is bled with clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, at the nearest station or on a driveway in Aberdare. The test before our technicians head off is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never needs to go to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Aberdare
Aberdare is a town situated in a riverside location within the Cynon Valley area of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. It is positioned near the meeting point of two significant waterways. The town has a notable history as a major industrial centre, and it was also renowned for its lively cultural scene. Aberdare is located near several major cities, including Cardiff and Swansea.
AdBlue drains across Rhondda Cynon Taf, Aberdare included
Throughout the CF postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs around Aberdare serve much of Rhondda Cynon Taf too, Gadlys, Robertstown and Abernant among them. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
Aberdare is a riverside town, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Aberdare?
There is no honest single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Three things change the cost: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight spot behind St John the Baptist.
With that in mind, each call from Aberdare begins with the same trio — which fluid was put in, how much, if the engine ran — before any quote. Given them, a range shrinks to a single firm figure.
You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Aberdare: still next to the vehicle?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the most helpful move there is. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Aberdare or wherever in Rhondda Cynon Taf, once you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran.