Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Adams Street
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does your engine. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly purged where your car sits around Adams Street. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Adams Street
Things to do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, take your keys out.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Give us a postcode starting SY24 5, or whatever street is nearest, and the van finds you directly — so call wherever you stand.
Never:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your vehicle: the engine stays off.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant your ignition comes on, so keep the car off.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not thin it.
- Keep it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way along Chapel Street.
- Do not try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you roll your car off the island if you're on a forecourt in Adams Street, whether it is the murco or elsewhere. If you're on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, where it treats the gas. Nothing in a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of it was meant to go that way.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Pentre-bach last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of harm come from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filters and narrow channels; meanwhile, because it eats at certain metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it stays in there. By daybreak, a vehicle parked in Adams Street with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it is only inside the tank, nothing changes. Then there is the water: it brings no protection to the components that need it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
A problem of thin fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the another forecourt nearby. Mixed into the diesel and sitting still, it is harmless for now; running your motor does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It can't simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Tre Taliesin or the middle of Adams Street.
As with petrol, there's good news. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits just in your tank, the simplest section of the whole system to clear, anywhere your vehicle has come to rest across Ceredigion.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Adams Street
Plenty of motors put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and in dim light the two can look identical. Nobody means it. A bottle bought when heading home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the typical story.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside the local primary school. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off New Street. Otherwise, in dim light by Y Llew Gwyn, the car gets topped up by a driver using that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere around Ceredigion, Adams Street included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Adams Street, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Through your filter, through the lines, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each may show up, perhaps part way across Adams Street or coming back from Coed Rhyd-fach. Stop when safe. Switch off. Leave it off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
Adams Street lies over 50 miles from the M4; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
A quick hop across Adams Street to the car park by Erglodd Roman Fort is one thing; driving towards Bangor, over 50 miles away, is another, because every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to flush once the motor has been run, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. If it is noticed soon, long-term damage is very unusual.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Adams Street
A street by Iron Age Camp, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: wherever your car has come to rest in Adams Street, our technicians travel to it. Three replies shape the work, so before anything else our engineers ask which fluid got in, about the amount, plus whether your motor has run.
Next, emptying your tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out unaided, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters far more with urea than with petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Lastly, the system is bled with clean diesel. You set off as soon as our technicians have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Adams Street or in a bay at Borth. Before we leave, our engineers check it is running smoothly with fresh diesel in. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never has to go to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Adams Street and where it is
Adams Street is a coastal locality in Ceredigion, situated near the villages of Tal-y-bont and Staylittle. Adams Street has a population of around 641 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Adams Street is located at an elevation of 57 metres, with the nearest city being Bangor, approximately 51.7 miles away.
Adams Street and Ceredigion: AdBlue drains across the area
Our vans that answer AdBlue jobs in Adams Street also cover the locations round it, Tal-y-bont, Birkenhead Street and Staylittle among them, and most of Ceredigion beyond, across the SY postcode area. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Adams Street is a coastal area, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Adams Street: the cost of fixing it
Not one flat price would be fair, since every job is different. What moves the cost is, first, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Caer Llety llwyd.
What got in, how much, plus if it ran: each Adams Street call begins by asking exactly that, ahead of any quote, never afterwards. Those replies shrink the range right down to a single figure.
Before anyone sets off, you are told the quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Adams Street: still next to the vehicle?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether the engine ran are everything we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Ceredigion, Adams Street included.