AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dowlais? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and the ignition as well. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. The trouble begins once it is pulled through the lines — it won't ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. In Dowlais, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Dowlais: the first few minutes
To do:
- Remove the keys, and that prevents someone switching the power on.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting CF48 3, or simply the name of a street nearby, so call from the car.
Do not:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to reposition the car.
- Switching your key to ignition alone starts your pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short stretch up Victoria Street.
- Beside the road, don't try draining it yourself.
On a forecourt around Dowlais, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car away from the pump. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It sinks, since it's denser than diesel, and pools low where the intake takes its supply from. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Pen-y-Darren overnight and not started since is the straightforward case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when the motor runs, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow channels; and, since it attacks some metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. A car left standing around Dowlais with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water content harms them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more significant than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol from the Asda. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's in your tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Deposits and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue splits again out of your diesel, so watering it can't help. Hence the flush counts more, and trying the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Pant or the centre of Dowlais alike.
As with petrol, there is good news. Anywhere around Merthyr Tydfil your vehicle has come to rest, an unrun engine means the AdBlue still in the tank: the simplest part of a fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Dowlais?
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap — can appear the same. Nobody intends it; many layouts invite it. Mostly it is never the filling station: a driver picks up a container driving home and pours it in outside the house.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. The top-up is hurried outside the local primary school, because your dash lit up with a warning while the kids were taken off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Goat Mill Road. Otherwise, in dim light outside The Horse and Groom, your car is topped up by a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least familiar vehicles get it the most — hire cars, brand-new cars, company ones, and the other vehicle of a home with both fuel types. Wherever you're in Dowlais or the remainder of Merthyr Tydfil, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Dowlais?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. It has been sucked through your filter and your lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may appear, perhaps part way across Dowlais or returning from Community Nature Garden. No restarting to check: pull over once it is safe, then switch everything off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M4, under 25 miles from Dowlais, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Dowlais to the car park by Dowlais Boys and Girls Club is a very different job from a run towards Newport, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the motor has been running. Long-term damage is very uncommon if it's spotted quickly.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Dowlais
A road by Dowlais Methodist Church, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your car has come to rest in Dowlais, our engineers travel to it. What got in, roughly the quantity, plus whether the engine has been run: our technicians check before all else, because those shape the work.
Right there, that tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. A careful flush matters far more with AdBlue than after petrol, since residue will not clear out by itself. Next, the fuel filter: flushed, or replaced when it has to be. Then fresh diesel, then a check of the vehicle. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the motor has not run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that's the final step. Whether it is a parking space at Merthyr Tydfil or a driveway in Dowlais, that is where our engineers start the car and you set off. We confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before we leave. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Dowlais, briefly
Dowlais is a suburban area situated lakeside in Merthyr Tydfil, with Dowlais being close to several nearby places including Pen-y-wern, Dowlais Top, and Incline Top. Dowlais has a population of approximately 3212 people and Dowlais is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Dowlais sits at an elevation of 297 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape.
AdBlue drains across Merthyr Tydfil, Dowlais included
Pen-y-wern, Dowlais Top and Incline Top are among the places near Dowlais that the same vans serve, along with most of Merthyr Tydfil further out, throughout the CF postcode area. Ring and check instead of guessing when you are close to a county line, or anywhere awkward to explain.
A mobile service fits Dowlais, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring the vehicle to us, because we drain it there, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Dowlais: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one flat figure could be honest, because every job is different. What changes the price is, firstly, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind All Saints. Dowlais.
With that in mind, every call from Dowlais opens by asking the same trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, if the engine ran — ahead of any quote. Those answers shrink a range right down to a single number.
Before anyone heads out, you are told the quote by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Dowlais: still next to the car?
Not touching the car is, then, the most useful thing you can do. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether the engine ran is everything we need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across Merthyr Tydfil, Dowlais included.