AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Blaen Clydach? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and the ignition too. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing starts until the engine pulls it through. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly purged where your car sits in Blaen Clydach. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Blaen Clydach: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Which fluid, and roughly what amount? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Call just where you are. Say a CF40 2 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- No starting the motor — not for a second, not to shift your vehicle.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way along Brynheulog Terrace.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
Moving the car off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Blaen Clydach forecourt you are on, the Asda included. At home, the vehicle stays exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to the exhaust, treating what the engine emits. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps separate rather than mixing — entirely different from fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. 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 Gelli last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
After it is sucked in, the harm comes in two forms. It attacks some metals found in fuel systems, working on whatever it reaches till it's removed completely. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and settle in tiny passages. Pipes holding AdBlue spell damage by morning for a vehicle sitting in Blaen Clydach. Just inside your tank, it stays the same. The water in it causes harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Shell, and this issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in that tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue separates again from your diesel, and so watering it won't help. Hence the flush matters more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Ystrad or the heart of Blaen Clydach equally.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Anywhere around Rhondda Cynon Taf the car has come to rest, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Blaen Clydach?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually takes place outside the house, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside the local primary school. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Jones Street. Else, after dark outside The Pandy Inn, the car is refilled by a driver using that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that is the first response to the same slip, anywhere around Blaen Clydach or the remainder of Rhondda Cynon Taf you are.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Blaen Clydach?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, having passed through the fuel filter and pipework.
Maybe returning from Cwm Clydach Countryside Park, or part way across Blaen Clydach, the engine may run lumpy, smoke, drop pace, light up your dash or stall. No restarting to check: stop once safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M4, under 10 miles from Blaen Clydach, at the first junction and park safely, not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Blaen Clydach to the car park by Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC is a very different job from a run towards Cardiff, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to rinse out once the engine has been run, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Spotted soon, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Blaen Clydach: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
The car remains where it is, whether that's a road beside The M&P Group 3G, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt in Blaen Clydach, and our van travels to it. Three replies shape the work, so first we ask what got in, about what quantity, plus if the engine has run.
On the spot, the tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave as one. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where your engine hasn't run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that is the final step. You drive off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Blaen Clydach or in a space outside Llwynypia. The check before we head off is that it runs correctly on new diesel. We do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Blaen Clydach
Blaen Clydach is a suburban area in Rhondda Cynon Taf, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 216 metres. Blaen Clydach is located near the communities of Clydach Vale, Trealaw, and Llwynypia, and is approximately 16 miles from Cardiff. Blaen Clydach has a population of around 2997 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Blaen Clydach is also within commuting distance of major cities, being around 144 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Blaen Clydach and across Rhondda Cynon Taf
Throughout the CF postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue jobs around Blaen Clydach serve much of Rhondda Cynon Taf as well, Clydach Vale, Trealaw and Llwynypia included. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
No towing is needed. In Blaen Clydach, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: the car is emptied where it stands, whether on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Blaen Clydach
Since each callouts differ, a flat price wouldn't be fair. What changes the price is, firstly, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Tonypandy Methodist Church.
With that in mind, each call from Blaen Clydach opens by asking the identical trio — which fluid went in, how much, if it ran — ahead of any quote. Given those replies, a range narrows to a single fixed number.
Our price is quoted during the call, before a van sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Blaen Clydach: still alongside your car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Blaen Clydach or anywhere within Rhondda Cynon Taf, after you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.