AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Craig-y-Rhacca? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system draws it in. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly flushed where your car sits in Craig-y-Rhacca. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Craig-y-Rhacca, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Do:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, take the keys away.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call right where you are. Quote a CF83 8 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Don't:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the vehicle: the motor remains off.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the moment the ignition comes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short way down Addison Way.
- By the road, do not attempt draining it yourself.
Rolling the car off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Craig-y-Rhacca forecourt you're on, the Esso included. If you are on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. From a separate tank it is fed directly to the exhaust, treating what the motor emits. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It sinks, because it is heavier than diesel, and settles low where the pickup draws its fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Trethomas overnight and has not turned since. The liquid waits at the foot of that tank, undrawn — though it will be first through once your motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps working on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it till morning in Craig-y-Rhacca makes it worse. In that tank alone, time does nothing. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel running through them, and so the water content damages them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Morrisons's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that's the main issue. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is inside your tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Brynawel or the middle of Craig-y-Rhacca.
As with petrol, there is good news. Wherever in Caerphilly your car has stopped, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the simplest part of a fuel system to empty.
Craig-y-Rhacca: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap — can appear the same. No one intends it; plenty of layouts invite it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside the local primary school the top-up is rushed. Near Penllwyn Lane, someone pours a container in on that drive after work. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The Forge & Hammer, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a rental, a brand-new car, a fleet motor, or the other car in a family with both fuel types — the cars drivers use least. Wherever you are in Craig-y-Rhacca or the remainder of Caerphilly, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Craig-y-Rhacca?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The fuel filter and lines have had it pulled through, and some running takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
You may notice the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Forge Wood or halfway across Craig-y-Rhacca. No restarting to test: pull over when safe, then turn everything off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Craig-y-Rhacca lies under 5 miles from the M4; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, and so driving for Newport, under 10 miles away, makes a far larger job than hopping across Craig-y-Rhacca to the car park by Graig-y-rhacca Community Resource Centre. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where your car has stopped, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Noticed soon, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Craig-y-Rhacca?
The vehicle stays put, whether that's a road near Graig-y-rhacca Community Centre, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt around Craig-y-Rhacca, and the van comes to it. What was put in, about the quantity, plus whether the engine has been run: our engineers ask before all else, since those decide the job.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave as one. Residue from AdBlue won't wash away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more with urea than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when the motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Lastly, the fuel system is primed with new diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, outside Crosskeys or on a drive around Craig-y-Rhacca. It is tested on fresh diesel to make sure it runs properly before our technicians go. No workshop is required at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Craig-y-Rhacca
Craig-y-Rhacca is a locality situated on the banks of a river in Caerphilly, with a mix of terraced housing and other residential properties. Craig-y-Rhacca has a population of around 628 people and is located near the cities of Newport and Cardiff, with nearby places including Nant-y-ceisiad and Machen. Craig-y-Rhacca sits at an elevation of 141 metres, in a region of south Wales known for its industrial heritage and natural beauty. Craig-y-Rhacca is connected to the wider region by its proximity to major roads and the city of Newport, which is 7.2 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Craig-y-Rhacca and across Caerphilly
Throughout the CF postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs in Craig-y-Rhacca serve much of Caerphilly too, Nant-y-ceisiad, Waterloo and Machen included. Assuming won't help by a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; phone and ask.
A mobile service suits Craig-y-Rhacca, a small village: you have no need to take the vehicle to us, because we empty it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Craig-y-Rhacca?
Each job is different, so no fixed price is fair. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of your car, because an open drive is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight space behind Trethomas Christian Fellowship.
That is why each call from Craig-y-Rhacca starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it has run. When they are known, a range becomes one firm number.
You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Craig-y-Rhacca: still alongside your car?
Not touching your car is, then, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Craig-y-Rhacca or anywhere within Caerphilly, after you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.