AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Corlannau? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave your engine off then keep the ignition off. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing starts till your engine sucks it through. In Corlannau, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Corlannau, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting SA12 8, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so call from the car.
Don't:
- Shifting the car even a short way is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short way along Heol Cwmafan.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself by the roadside.
Moving your car away from the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Corlannau forecourt you're on, the Tesco included. If you are on your own drive, leave it just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A car topped up on a drive in Pantdu overnight and left unstarted is the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though once your engine turns, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. What is left once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and block filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it is flushed out. Lines carrying AdBlue mean damage overnight for a car sitting in Corlannau. Just in your tank, it stays stable. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
An issue of thinned fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol from the another forecourt nearby. No damage comes as long as it stays put, blended into your diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits back out — and the next fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Corlannau or out in Port Talbot, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue waits only in that tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to clear, anywhere your car has stopped in Neath Port Talbot.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Corlannau: how it ends up there
Many motors put the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and after dark the two may look the same. No one means it. A bottle bought while heading home and poured in at home, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual route.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. The refill is hurried outside the local primary school, because the dash flashed with a warning as the kids were taken off. A driver pours the bottle in at home, just off Teras Moelfre, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up your car after dark, parked in the car park by Forge Tavern.
The least familiar vehicles see it the most — rentals, new cars, company ones, and the spare vehicle of a home with both fuels. Wherever across Neath Port Talbot, Corlannau included, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first response: keep it off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Corlannau?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. It's been drawn through the fuel filter and your lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Expect rough running, smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a stall — returning from Margam Forest, say, or part way across Corlannau. When you safely can, stop then turn it off — without turning it on again to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M4, under a mile from Corlannau, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further in. That is why a hop across Corlannau to park near Neath Port Talbot Library and Information Services and a drive of under 10 miles towards Swansea are very different jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has come to a stop. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it is caught soon.
Corlannau: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
We come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Corlannau: a side street near Theatr y Dywysoges Frenhinol, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What went in, roughly how much, and whether the motor has been run: our engineers ask first, since those decide the job.
Right there, that tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than after petrol, since residue won't clear out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the final step. At that point our engineers fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking space at Port Talbot Parkway or a driveway in Corlannau. The test before we leave is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. As the job is done in full where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Corlannau, for a moment
Corlannau is a suburban area in Neath Port Talbot, situated near the coast and approximately 7 miles from Swansea. Corlannau has a relatively low elevation of 33 metres and is characterized by predominantly terraced housing. Corlannau is close to nearby places such as Lletyharri, Velindre, and Caerhendy, and is part of the wider Swansea urban area.
AdBlue drains across Neath Port Talbot, Corlannau included
AdBlue jobs around Corlannau go to teams that serve the places near it — Lletyharri, Velindre plus Caerhendy — and much of Neath Port Talbot further out, across SA postcodes. Close to a boundary, or anywhere tricky to explain? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
A van that comes to you suits Corlannau, a residential suburb: you have no need to take the vehicle to us, since our engineers drain it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Corlannau?
No flat figure would be honest, since every job is different. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of the car, because an open driveway is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight gap behind Port Talbot Civic Centre.
That's why every call from Corlannau starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it has run. When they are known, a range turns into one firm figure.
You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy whilst we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
In Corlannau and still beside the car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Corlannau or wherever in Neath Port Talbot.