Brecon: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does your engine. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the system draws it in. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly purged where your car sits in Brecon. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Brecon
Things to do:
- Take the keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting LD3 7, or just the name of a street close by, so call from the spot.
Do not do these:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to reposition the car.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition comes on, so keep the car off.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short stretch along High Street Superior is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the verge.
The staff on duty at any Brecon filling station — the Gulf among them — will usually help pushing it clear if you ask. At home, your car remains exactly as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. No part inside a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and none of that was intended to travel that way.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It is heavier than diesel, 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, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Llanfaes last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny channels and block filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it's flushed out. Lines holding AdBlue mean damage by morning for a car parked in Brecon. Just inside the tank, it stays stable. And there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol from the Morrisons. No damage comes while it sits unused, blended into your diesel — only when the motor runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates again — and the following fill will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Brecon or out in Cefn Cantref, costs more than nearly any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere across Powys the car has come to rest, an unrun engine means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Brecon: how it ends up there
It is not deliberate. Many vehicles have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. A container bought when heading home and poured in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical route.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside the local primary school. Close to Ship Street, a driver pours a bottle in on that drive after work. Otherwise, after dark by Rorkes Drift, the vehicle is topped up by a driver using that flap for the first time.
Rented motors, new vehicles, company motors, or the spare vehicle in a family with one of each: the least familiar vehicles get it most. Wherever you're in Brecon or the rest of Powys, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Brecon: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Given any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through your filter and lines.
You may see the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from The Groves or halfway across Brecon. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the M4, under 50 miles from Brecon, at the first junction and stop safely, rather than carrying on.
Distance counts: every mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so driving for Hereford, under 50 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing Brecon to the car park by Brecon Coliseum. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the rinsing where your car has come to a stop, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Spotted early, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Brecon
The car remains where it is, whether that is a road near The Guildhall, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station in Brecon, and our van travels to it. Three replies decide the job, so first our technicians ask what went in, about the amount, plus whether your engine has run.
Then the tank is emptied where the vehicle sits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed right through since what remains will not wash away by itself. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians get there, provided your motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Last, the fuel system is bled with fresh diesel. Then our engineers start it and you drive off, whether from a parking bay by the nearest station or a driveway around Brecon. The check before our technicians go is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. No garage is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Brecon itself
Brecon is a town situated on the River Usk in Powys, Wales, with a population of around 7021 people. Brecon sits at an elevation of 143 metres, surrounded by rolling hills and mountains. Brecon has a mix of housing types, but predominantly features terraced homes, and is close to nearby places such as Pendre and Uplands. Brecon is located near the Brecon Beacons National Park, and is a popular base for outdoor activities.
AdBlue drains across Brecon and Powys
Pendre, Uplands and Pontwilym are among the towns near Brecon that the same teams reach, together with most of Powys beyond, over the LD postcode area. Close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking is better than guessing, so phone.
Anywhere the car sits — a driveway at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our technicians drain it there, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Brecon, a riverside town, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Brecon?
Not one flat figure would be honest, since each job is different. What changes the price is, first, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind St. Michael's Catholic Church.
With that reason, each call from Brecon opens with the same trio — what was put in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — ahead of any figure. Their replies narrow a range right down to a single figure.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is on the way, check your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
In Brecon and still alongside the car?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran is everything we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Powys, Brecon too.