Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Crinow
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. The trouble begins once it is pulled through the lines — it won't ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Crinow, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your motor has been run. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Crinow, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the amount, and so don't bin it away.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting SA67 8, or just the name of a street close by, and so call from the spot.
Don't do these:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start your pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't thin it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short stretch along B4314.
- Beside the road, do not try emptying it on your own.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle away from the island if you are at a forecourt around Crinow, whether it's the Texaco or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive, leave it precisely where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. Stored in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It does not combine. Once it is poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it waits beneath your diesel, and that is how a car filled in Narberth Bridge yesterday and not started stays the simple case, provided no one touches the key.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and block filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it is flushed out. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it overnight in Crinow leaves things worse. Inside your tank alone, time does nothing. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Preseli Filling Station and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is inside the tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Whether the car sits in Stonyford or the heart of Crinow, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other error, and the flush counts more. Why: it won't remain mixed, and so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever in Pembrokeshire your vehicle has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Crinow?
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then under a single flap — can look the same. Nobody means it; many layouts allow it. It mostly takes place at home, from a container bought on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone tops up the car. A driver pours the container in at home, right off Station Road, as the day ends. Else, in dim light by Kirkland Arms, your car is refilled by a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least known vehicles get it most — rentals, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the spare motor of a family with one of each fuel types. Wherever you are in Crinow or the rest of Pembrokeshire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Crinow?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Given any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed through the fuel filter and pipework.
Maybe returning from Black Aldern Wood, or midway across Crinow, the engine might run rough, smoke, drop power, light up your dash or cut out. Once you safely can, stop then turn everything off — with no turning it on again to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Crinow lies under 50 miles from the M4; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Crinow to the car park by Narberth Castle is a very different job from a run towards St Davids, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
We do all of the flushing where your car has stopped, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage if it's noticed quickly.
Crinow: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
The car remains where it is, whether that's a road near Oriel Q, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt around Crinow, and the van travels to it. Three answers decide the job, and so before anything else our technicians ask which fluid was put in, roughly the amount, and if your engine has run.
Then that tank is emptied where the car sits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Testing the vehicle comes at the end, after fresh diesel is added and the filter is flushed or, if necessary, replaced. If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that is the last step. You head off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway in Crinow or in a space outside Narberth. The test before we head off is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. Because the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Crinow itself
Crinow is a small hamlet in Pembrokeshire, situated inland at an elevation of 103 metres. Crinow lies near the communities of Cold Blow, Camp Hill, and Princes Gate, and is approximately 24 miles from St Davids. Crinow has a population of around 516 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Crinow is located in a rural area, relatively far from major cities like London, which is around 198 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Pembrokeshire, Crinow included
AdBlue call-outs around Crinow go to vans that cover the towns near it — Cold Blow, Camp Hill plus Princes Gate — and much of Pembrokeshire further out, throughout SA postcodes. Close to a boundary, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
No moving is needed. In Crinow, a rural hamlet, a mobile service fits: your car is emptied where it stands, whether in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Crinow: the cost of fixing it
Since each jobs differ, a flat price would not be honest. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of your car, because an open driveway is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Kings Court.
That's why every call from Crinow starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it has run. Their replies narrow a range down to a single figure.
The price is given on the call, before anyone leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Crinow: still next to the car?
Not touching the car is, right now, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if the engine ran are everything we need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Pembrokeshire, Crinow too.