Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Abertillery
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. The harm begins once it's pulled through the pump — it won't burn, and it will not blend with diesel. Caught before the motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Abertillery. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Abertillery
Things to do:
- Pocket your keys, which prevents someone switching the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting NP13 1, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Do not drive it anywhere, not even a short distance up High Street.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the verge.
Rolling the vehicle off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Abertillery forecourt you're on, the Tesco included. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to the exhaust, cleaning what your engine lets out. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It sinks, because it is denser than diesel, and pools down where the intake takes its fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Pen-y-Bont last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Once it's sucked in, the harm comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow passages; and, since it eats at certain metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. Lines holding AdBlue mean damage by morning for a vehicle sitting in Abertillery. Only in the tank, it stays stable. Then there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it most — the injection pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Texaco's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the whole issue. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is in your tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Deposits and corrosion stay after the following fill, and AdBlue separates back out of your diesel, and so thinning it won't help. Hence the flush matters more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Six Bells or the centre of Abertillery equally.
As with petrol, there's good news. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits only inside the tank, the simplest section of the entire system to clear, wherever the car has stopped around Blaenau Gwent.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Abertillery: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars sits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually happens outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the filling station.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside the local primary school, because your dash lit up with a warning as the children were dropped off. Near Somerset Street, a driver tips a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Otherwise, after dark by The Somerset Hotel, the vehicle gets topped up by someone opening that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the vehicles people know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it off: that's the first response to an identical mistake, wherever in Abertillery or the rest of Blaenau Gwent you happen to be.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Abertillery?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via your filter and pipework.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Abertillery Cenotaph, perhaps, or midway across Abertillery. When safe, stop then switch everything off — without restarting to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M4, under 15 miles from Abertillery, at the first junction and stop safely, not carrying on.
Mileage counts: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in, so driving for Newport, under 15 miles away, makes a far larger job than hopping across Abertillery to the car park by Abertillery & District Museum. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once your engine has been run. When it is spotted soon, permanent damage is very unusual.
Abertillery: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has come to rest in Abertillery — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a road beside Metropole Cultural and Conference Centre — the van comes to your car. Which fluid went in, roughly the quantity, and if your motor has been run: our engineers ask first, because those decide the work.
Next, emptying your tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. A careful flush matters much more with AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains will not wash away on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when the motor has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Last, the system is bled with fresh diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, at Llanhilleth or on a driveway in Abertillery. The test before we go is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Abertillery and where it is
Abertillery is a town situated in a valley setting, where the Ebbw Fach river flows. Abertillery is nestled within the Blaenau Gwent county area, in the country of Wales. The town has a strong connection to its surrounding landscape, with its riverside location being a notable feature. Abertillery is part of a region that was once considered part of the historic county of Monmouthshire.
Abertillery and Blaenau Gwent: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the NP postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs in Abertillery reach most of Blaenau Gwent too, Pant y Pwdyn, Penrhiwgarreg and Blaenau Gwent among them. Near a boundary, or anywhere tricky to explain? Checking beats guessing, so phone.
No moving is needed. In Abertillery, a riverside town, a mobile service fits: your vehicle is emptied on the spot, whether on a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
Abertillery: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no fair single price, since the jobs are not the same. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of the car, since an open driveway is easier for a van to reach safely than a tight space behind St Michael's Church.
That is why each call from Abertillery starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. With those replies, a range shrinks to a single fixed number.
You get that quote by phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Alongside the vehicle around Abertillery, right now?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Abertillery or wherever within Blaenau Gwent.