AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Chirk? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing starts till the motor sucks it round. In Chirk, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do straight away, Chirk: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, take the keys away.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly how much, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting LL14 5, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Shifting your vehicle just a short way is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Switching your key to ignition alone sets the pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, so it's wasted.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance along Holyhead Road.
- Emptying the tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
Moving your vehicle away from the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Chirk forecourt you are on, the BP included. On that drive, the car 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. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
It doesn't combine. Once it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the same spot the pickup draws from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Pont-Faen last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward 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. It eats at some metals found in fuel components, attacking any part it touches till it is cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow channels. Lines holding AdBlue mean damage overnight for a vehicle parked in Chirk. Only in the tank, it stays the same. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that's the whole issue. No damage is done while it stays put, blended into your diesel — only when the engine works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue separates back from the diesel, and so watering it can't help. That is why the flush counts more, and trying the engine "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Gledrid or the heart of Chirk equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever in Wrexham the car has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest bit of a fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Chirk: how it ends up there
Plenty of cars place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and in dim light the two may look identical. No one intends it. Mostly it is not the filling station: someone buys a container driving home and pours it in at home.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside Weston Rhyn Primary School, after the dash flashed with a warning while the children were taken off. Close to Station Avenue, a driver pours a bottle in on the drive after work. Else, after dark by Stanton House Inn, your car gets topped up by a driver using that flap the first time.
It comes up most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet vehicle, or the spare vehicle of a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles people use the least. An identical slip, same first step — keep it off — anywhere you happen to be in Chirk or the remainder of Wrexham.
Chirk: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. With any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed through the filter and lines.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any might show up, maybe midway across Chirk or returning from Doctors Wood. No starting it again to test: stop when it is safe, then switch it off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Chirk sits under 25 miles from the M53; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and stop somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why crossing Chirk to park beside Chirk War Memorial and a drive of under 10 miles for Wrexham are such distinct jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. If it's spotted early, permanent damage is very uncommon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Chirk?
Wherever it has come to rest in Chirk — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a street beside Chirk Town Council — the van travels to the vehicle. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if the engine has been run, since those replies decide this work.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together after the tank is drained, right there. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is flushed right through since residue won't wash out unaided. Testing your car follows last, after fresh diesel goes in and the filter is flushed or, where necessary, swapped. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that's the last step. Whether it is a parking space outside the nearest station or a driveway in Chirk, that is where we fire it up and you head off. Before we go, our technicians make sure it is running properly with clean diesel in. We do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a workshop. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Chirk, for a moment
Chirk is a small town situated on the riverside in northeast Wales, with Chirk having a population of around 4506 people. Chirk sits at an elevation of 110 metres, close to the English border and near the towns of Wrexham and Oswestry. Chirk is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is surrounded by smaller communities such as Rhosywaun, Chirk Green, and Chirk Bank. Chirk is located approximately 8 miles from Wrexham and 158 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Chirk and across Wrexham
AdBlue call-outs around Chirk are passed to teams that serve the towns near it — Rhosywaun, Chirk Green plus Chirk Bank — and much of Wrexham further out, throughout LL postcodes. Guessing won't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and check.
Chirk is a riverside town, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Chirk: the cost of fixing it
There's no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open drive is easier for a technician to reach safely than a tight gap behind Parish Church of Saint Mary.
What went in, how much, plus if it ran: each Chirk call begins by asking exactly those, ahead of any quote, never afterwards. Their replies shrink a range down to one number.
You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Chirk: still alongside the car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Chirk or wherever in Wrexham, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran.