AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ballyronan? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave your engine off — and your ignition too. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly purged where the vehicle sits in Ballyronan. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Ballyronan, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the amount, so don't throw it away.
- Give us a postcode starting BT45 6, or whatever street lies closest, and our van reaches you straight — so ring wherever you are.
Don't do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the vehicle: the motor remains off.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Wallace Cottages.
- Beside the road, do not attempt emptying it yourself.
Moving the car away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Ballyronan forecourt you're on, the the nearest petrol station included. At home, the vehicle stays exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
It doesn't combine. Once it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Toome last night and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue sits at the base of the tank, undrawn — but it will be the first thing through once the engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
After it's pulled in, the harm takes two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting overnight in Ballyronan makes things worse. Inside the tank only, time does nothing. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel running past them, so the water part harms them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the another forecourt nearby. Blended through the diesel and left still, it is harmless at that stage; using the engine is the harm.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. It cannot just be run through, since it does not burn. Whether your vehicle is in Creagh or the centre of Ballyronan, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush counts more. Why: it will not remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next fill.
As with petrol, there's good news. Anywhere across County Londonderry the car has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
Ballyronan: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of cars place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap, and in dim light the two may look the same. Nobody means it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent refills your car. After work, a container is tipped in on a drive close to Dunaverty Court. Otherwise, after dark outside the pub in the village, your vehicle is topped up by someone using that flap the first time.
Hired vehicles, new motors, fleet cars, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least familiar cars see it the most. Leave it off: that is the first response to an identical slip, wherever in Ballyronan or the remainder of County Londonderry you are.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Ballyronan?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. It has been pulled through the filter and your lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Expect rough running, smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from the green space at the edge of the village, say, or midway across Ballyronan. Once safe, pull over then turn everything off — with no restarting to test. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M77, over 50 miles from Ballyronan, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Ballyronan to the car park by the centre is a very different job from a run towards Lisburn, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once the motor has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. Permanent damage is very uncommon if it's caught quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Ballyronan?
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that is a street beside a street just off the centre, a drive, a layby or a forecourt in Ballyronan, and our van comes to it. The work rests on three replies, which we get before all else — which fluid went in, the amount, and whether the motor has run.
Then your tank is drained where your car waits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Your system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Next, the filter: cleaned, or replaced when it has to be. Then fresh diesel, then a check of your vehicle. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no fault, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Finally, the fuel system is primed with clean diesel. Whether it is a parking bay at the nearest station or a driveway in Ballyronan, that is where we start it and you drive off. The check before we head off is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Ballyronan itself
Ballyronan is a small locality in County Londonderry, situated inland at an elevation of 16 metres. Ballyronan lies near the villages of Loup and Ballymaguigan, and is approximately 24 miles from Lisburn. Ballyronan has a population of around 628 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Ballyronan and County Londonderry
Throughout the BT postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs in Ballyronan serve most of County Londonderry too, Loup, Ballymaguigan and Derrycrin among them. Guessing won't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and ask.
A mobile service fits Ballyronan, a small village: you have no need to bring the vehicle to us, because we empty it there, in a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Ballyronan?
There is no fair single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. What shifts the cost is, firstly, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind the far end of the built-up part.
Ahead of a figure, not after, every call from Ballyronan opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the quantity, and if the engine ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
You get that quote by phone, before anybody 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're on the way.
In Ballyronan and still alongside the vehicle?
Not touching the car is, right now, the best move open to you. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether the engine ran are all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across County Londonderry, Ballyronan too.