Derwen: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave your motor off — and the ignition too. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly purged where your car sits around Derwen. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Derwen: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting CF35 6, or simply the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Do not do these:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to reposition your car.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself starts the pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Derwen.
- By the road, do not try emptying it yourself.
The staff on duty at any Derwen forecourt — the Sainsbury's included — will usually help rolling it clear if you ask. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a dedicated tank it goes straight to your exhaust, treating what the engine lets out. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
It does not combine. Once it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It sinks, since it is denser than diesel, and pools low where the pickup draws its fuel from. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Pendre yesterday evening and not started since counts as the simple case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but when your motor runs, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
It causes 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 labouring on the components it reaches for as long as it stays there. A motor left sitting in Derwen with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Then there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that need it most — the injection pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Welcome Break and you have an issue of thin fuel. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and left in your tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates back out — and the following fill won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Derwen or out in Coity, costs more than nearly any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Bridgend the vehicle is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Derwen?
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, now and then under a single flap — may look the same. No one intends it; many layouts allow it. A container bought while driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical story.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone refills your car. Near A4061, someone pours a container in at home after work. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at The Red Dragon, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Rented vehicles, new cars, company cars, or the spare car in a home with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles get it most. Leave it switched off: that is the first response to the same mistake, anywhere around Derwen or the remainder of Bridgend you happen to be.
Derwen: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and some running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each may appear, maybe part way across Derwen or coming back from Oak field Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Derwen sits under a mile from the M4; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of driving on.
A quick hop across Derwen to the car park by Odeon is one thing; heading for Swansea, under 25 miles away, is another, since every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to clean out once your engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. Permanent damage is very unusual if it is caught early.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Derwen: what it takes
A street beside M&S Outlet, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: wherever your vehicle has stopped in Derwen, we come to it. Which fluid got in, about how much, plus if the engine has turned over: our engineers ask first, because those shape the work.
Then the tank is drained where the vehicle sits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is cleaned right through because what remains won't flush out by itself. Next, your filter: flushed, or replaced if it has to be. Then clean diesel, then a test of your vehicle. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers get there, provided your engine hasn't run. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Bleeding the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, outside Wildmill or on a driveway around Derwen. It is checked on fresh diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before our engineers head off. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never has to go to a workshop. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Derwen, for a moment
Derwen is a small hamlet in Bridgend, situated inland at an elevation of 91 metres, with Detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Derwen lies near several nearby places, including Litchard, Pen-y-cae, and Pen-yr-heol, and is approximately 17 miles from the city of Swansea. Derwen is characterized by its rural setting and relatively small population of around 2799 residents. Derwen is also located a significant distance from London, at around 148 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Derwen and across Bridgend
Litchard, Pen-y-cae and Pen-yr-heol are among the places around Derwen that the same teams reach, together with most of Bridgend further out, throughout the CF postcode area. Near a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Checking beats assuming, and so ring.
Derwen is a rural hamlet, and a call-out 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 stands, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Derwen
Each job is different, and so no fixed price would be honest. Three things change the cost: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where your car is. That last one rests on whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight spot behind litchard comminity hall.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, plus whether the engine ran: each Derwen call begins with precisely that, ahead of any quote, not after. Given those replies, a range shrinks to one fixed figure.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Derwen: still beside the vehicle?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Derwen or wherever within Bridgend, once you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran.