AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Brawdy? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave the engine off then leave the ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the fuel system draws it in. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and thoroughly rinsed where the car sits around Brawdy. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Brawdy: the first few minutes
Do these:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, take the keys away.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting SA62 6, or just the name of a street close by, so phone from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Many diesels run their fuel pump the instant the ignition goes on, so leave the car off.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, so it is wasted.
- Even a short way up A487 is too far to drive the car.
- By the road, do not try draining it yourself.
On a forecourt around Brawdy, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. No part inside a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the pickup draws its fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Llanddinog last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it does two kinds of harm. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny channels and block filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it's cleared out. Pipes holding AdBlue mean harm by morning for a vehicle parked in Brawdy. Only in the tank, it stays stable. And there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger fault?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Texaco and you have a problem of thin fuel. No harm comes while it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only once the motor runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain after the next tankful, and AdBlue separates again out of your diesel, and so thinning it won't help. Hence the flush counts more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Lochvane or the centre of Brawdy equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Pembrokeshire the car is standing.
Brawdy: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles sits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually takes place at home, from a container grabbed en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. The refill is rushed outside the local primary school, after your dash lit up with a warning as the kids were taken in. A driver pours the container in at home, right off Newgale Hill, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap refills the car after dark, stopped in the car park outside the pub in the village.
It comes up the most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet car, or the other vehicle of a home with one of each fuel types — the cars people use least. Wherever you're in Brawdy or the rest of Pembrokeshire, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Brawdy?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. The filter and lines have had it sucked along, and any running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
You may see your engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from the green space at the edge of the village or halfway across Brawdy. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Keep the car off instead of restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Brawdy lies under 50 miles from the M4; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
Distance counts: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system, so driving for St Davids, under 10 miles away, makes a much larger job than hopping across Brawdy to the car park by Pointz Castle. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once the engine has been running. Lasting damage is very uncommon if it is spotted quickly.
Brawdy: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Brawdy: a side street close to Tre-Maen-Hir Standing Stone, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work rests on three replies, which we ask for before all else — what got in, the quantity, and if the engine has run.
Next, draining the tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. The fuel system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. A test of your car comes last, after clean diesel goes in and the filter gets flushed or, if necessary, swapped. Engine not run? Then count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Lastly, the fuel system is primed with fresh diesel. At that point our engineers fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking bay at Haverfordwest or a drive around Brawdy. Before leaving, our technicians make sure it is running correctly with new diesel in. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Brawdy itself
Brawdy is a small coastal village in Pembrokeshire, situated near the western tip of Wales, with Brawdy being close to the historic city of St Davids. Brawdy sits at an elevation of around 103 metres, overlooking the coastline and surrounding countryside. Brawdy is characterised by its semi-detached housing and quiet, rural atmosphere, with nearby villages including Penycwm and Llandeloy.
AdBlue drains across Brawdy and Pembrokeshire
The vans that answer AdBlue call-outs around Brawdy also cover the spots round it, Penycwm, Rhydygele and Llandeloy among them, and most of Pembrokeshire beyond, across the SA postcode area. Assuming doesn't help by a county line or anywhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
Brawdy is a coastal village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether your car 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 in Brawdy?
There's no honest single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind St. Teilo's Church, Llandeloy.
Ahead of a figure, never afterwards, each call from Brawdy opens with three questions: the liquid, the quantity, and whether the engine ran. Their replies shrink the range down to a single number.
Our quote is given during the call, before a van sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is on the way, dig out your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
Next to the vehicle around Brawdy, still?
Then, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Brawdy or anywhere within Pembrokeshire.