Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cwmdu
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. The harm starts once it is sucked through your lines — it will not burn, and it will not blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Cwmdu, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your motor has been run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Cwmdu, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do:
- Pocket your keys, which prevents anyone switching the power on.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting SA5 8, or whatever street is closest, and the van reaches you straight — so call from wherever you stand.
Do not do these:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to reposition your car.
- Switching the key to ignition alone starts your pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel will not weaken it.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short stretch along Middle Road.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
On a forecourt around Cwmdu, whether it is the Murco or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car away from the pump. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to the exhaust, treating what your motor lets out. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it keeps apart instead of mixing — entirely different from fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the same spot the pickup sucks from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it waits beneath the diesel, which is how a car filled in Manselton last night and not switched on stays the straightforward one, as long as nobody turns your key.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and clog filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it's cleared out. By daybreak, a vehicle parked in Cwmdu with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is just inside your tank, it doesn't. Then there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that need it most — the injection pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Petrol put into a diesel on Texaco's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that's the main problem. Blended through the diesel and sitting still, it is no threat at that stage; using your motor is the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Mayhill or the middle of Cwmdu.
As with petrol, there's good news. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Swansea your car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Cwmdu
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap — can appear the same. Nobody intends it; many layouts invite it. It usually occurs at home, from a bottle bought en route home, rather than at the filling station.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside the local primary school the refill is hurried. Someone pours the bottle in at home, right off Gwylym Street, as the day ends. Or someone new to that flap refills your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by Travellers Well.
It takes place most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are in Cwmdu or the remainder of Swansea, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Cwmdu: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. With any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through your filter and lines.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any might show up, maybe part way across Cwmdu or returning from Cwmbwrla Park. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Keep it off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M4, under 3 miles from Cwmdu, at the first junction and park safely, rather than driving on.
Distance counts: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into your system, so heading for Swansea, under 3 miles away, gives a far larger job than hopping across Cwmdu to the car park by Gorse Avenue Community Centre. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after the motor has been run. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is spotted soon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Cwmdu
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Cwmdu: a side street close to Gendros Community Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies decide the work, and so before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, about the amount, and whether your engine has turned over.
Then the tank is cleared where your car sits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Next, the fuel filter: flushed, or changed if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a test of your vehicle. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where your engine hasn't run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no fault, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that is the final step. Starting it comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, by Swansea or on a drive in Cwmdu. Our engineers make sure it runs smoothly on clean diesel before we go. As the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Cwmdu and where it is
Cwmdu is a suburban area located on the coast near Swansea, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Cwmdu sits at an elevation of 81 metres, close to the city centre and nearby neighbourhoods such as Cae-Bricks and Cwmbwrla. Cwmdu is home to a population of around 5705 people, living in a predominantly residential community. Cwmdu benefits from its proximity to Swansea, being just 1.4 miles away from the city.
AdBlue drains across Cwmdu and Swansea
AdBlue jobs in Cwmdu are passed to vans that serve the places near it — Cae-Bricks, Cwmbwrla plus Gendros — and much of Swansea further out, throughout SA postcodes. Guessing won't help close to a county line or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
No moving is needed. In Cwmdu, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you works: the car is drained on the spot, whether on a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Cwmdu
Every job is different, so no single price would be honest. Three things shift the price: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one comes down to whether our van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight spot behind Christ Well URC.
Ahead of a quote, never afterwards, each call from Cwmdu opens with three questions: the fuel, the amount, and if it ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Before anyone sets off, you are told our price by phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is travelling, dig out your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
In Cwmdu and still next to the car?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Cwmdu or anywhere within Swansea, after you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran.