AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Brynteg? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. Being water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble just comes when your pump begins drawing it. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly cleaned where the car sits in Brynteg. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Brynteg
To do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting CF72 8, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the instant your ignition goes on, and so keep it off.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not thin it.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch down Brynteg Lane.
- By the road, do not attempt emptying it yourself.
Get the attendants to help you move your vehicle off the pumps if you are on a forecourt around Brynteg, whether it is the Texaco or elsewhere. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the gas. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps apart rather than blending — quite different from fuel. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue settles: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it waits underneath the diesel, and that is how a vehicle filled in Beddau last night and not started stays the simple case, provided no one touches the key.
Two kinds of harm come from there. It attacks certain metals found in fuel systems, working on whatever it reaches till it's removed from the system. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and settle in tiny channels. Overnight, a car parked in Brynteg with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it's just inside the tank, nothing changes. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, which is a second kind of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Tesco, and this issue is thinned fuel. No harm comes while it stays put, mixed into the diesel — only when the engine runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. It does not burn, and so it cannot just be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay through the following fill, and AdBlue splits back out of the diesel, and so watering it won't help. That is why the flush counts more, and turning the key "to see" costs more here than almost any other slip — in Tynant or the heart of Brynteg alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits only in that tank, the simplest section of the whole system to empty, anywhere the vehicle has come to rest in Rhondda Cynon Taf.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Brynteg: how it ends up there
Plenty of cars put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and after dark the two can appear identical. Nobody intends it. It usually happens at home, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. 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 Clos Gwynedd. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside Llantrisant RFC, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up the most in a rental, a brand-new vehicle, a company motor, or the other motor of a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles people know least. Leave it switched off: that is the first step to an identical mistake, wherever around Brynteg or the rest of Rhondda Cynon Taf you are.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Brynteg?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. It has been sucked through your filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each may appear, maybe part way across Brynteg or coming back from Llantrisant & Pontyclun Golf Club. No starting it again to test: pull over once safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Brynteg lies under 3 miles from the M4; if you were on it, exit by the first junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than driving on.
Hopping across Brynteg to the car park by Caerlan Community Hall and The Parish Office is one thing; driving for Cardiff, under 10 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the engine has been run. When it's noticed early, lasting damage is very uncommon.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Brynteg: what it takes
A street beside Tabor Baptist Church, a drive, a layby or a filling station: wherever your vehicle has come to rest in Brynteg, our engineers come to it. Before anything else we ask what was put in, about how much, and if the engine has run, because those answers decide this work.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. A full flush matters far more with AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains won't wash out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Engine not run? Then expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Lastly, your system is bled with fresh diesel. Starting the car comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, at Pontyclun or on a drive in Brynteg. It is checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs properly before our engineers go. No garage is required at any point, with the entire job done then and there. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Brynteg and where it is
Brynteg is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Rhondda Cynon Taf, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Brynteg lies close to the nearby settlements of Dan Caerlan and Llantrisant, and is approximately 9 miles from Cardiff. Brynteg has a population of around 2385 people and is located at an elevation of 86 metres. Brynteg is part of the wider commuter belt around Cardiff, with easy access to the city and its facilities.
Brynteg and Rhondda Cynon Taf: AdBlue drains across the area
Dan Caerlan, Llantrisant and Cross Inn are among the places near Brynteg that the same vans serve, along with most of Rhondda Cynon Taf further out, throughout the CF postcode area. Guessing doesn't help close to a border or somewhere hard to describe; phone and check.
A mobile service suits Brynteg, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your vehicle to us, because our engineers empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Brynteg
Every job differs, and so not one single quote would be honest. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Dr William Price.
That is why every call from Brynteg starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it's run. With those replies, the range narrows to a single fixed number.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. While our engineer is travelling, dig out your policy: many cover misfuelling.
In Brynteg and still alongside the car?
Then, the best thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Brynteg or anywhere within Rhondda Cynon Taf, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran.