AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dyffryn? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the engine. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. The trouble begins once it's sucked through the pump — it will not ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. In Dyffryn, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Dyffryn: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, take the keys away.
- Near moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Give us a postcode starting CF34 0, or whatever street lies closest, and our van finds you straight — so ring from wherever you stand.
Don't do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll the vehicle: your motor remains off.
- Switching the key to ignition alone starts the pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Pouring in more diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Even a short stretch up Humphreys Terrace is too far to drive it.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the kerbside.
Rolling the car away from the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Dyffryn forecourt you are on, the Oils for Wales or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave the car just where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. No part in an injection pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was intended to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It drops, because it is heavier than diesel, and settles down where the pickup takes its supply from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Brynheulog last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. What is left when the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny passages and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it's flushed out. Overnight, a vehicle parked around Dyffryn with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it's just inside that tank, nothing changes. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's inside your tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits back out — and the next fill won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Dyffryn or out in Twmpath-Mawr, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
As with petrol, there's good news. Wherever in Bridgend your vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Dyffryn?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors sits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up while driving home and poured in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. The top-up gets hurried outside the local primary school, after your dash lit up with a warning while the children were dropped in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Glanafon Terrace. One more pattern: darkness, a pub car park by Riverboat, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least known vehicles get it most — rentals, new cars, company ones, and the other vehicle in a home with both fuels. Wherever you are around Dyffryn or the remainder of Bridgend, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Dyffryn?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. With any running, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, having passed via the filter and pipework.
You may see the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Tudor Park or halfway across Dyffryn. Stop when safe. Turn off. Leave it off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M4, under 10 miles from Dyffryn, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That is why crossing Dyffryn to park near Llynfi BMX and a drive of under 15 miles towards Swansea are very different jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once your engine has been started. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage if it is noticed quickly.
Dyffryn: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped in Dyffryn — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a street by Keeper Of The Collieries — our van comes to the vehicle. Before anything else we ask what went in, about how much, and whether the engine has run, since those replies decide this work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one after the tank is drained, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out by itself, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than for petrol. Next, your filter: flushed, or replaced when it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a check of your car. If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
The final step is to bleed the system on clean diesel. Whether it is a parking bay by Maesteg or a driveway around Dyffryn, that is where our technicians fire it up and you set off. It's tested on clean diesel to make sure it runs correctly before we go. No workshop is required at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Dyffryn and where it is
Dyffryn is a suburban area in Bridgend, situated near the riverside with an elevation of around 170 metres. Dyffryn lies close to several nearby communities, including Spelter, Caerau, and Nantyffyllon, and is approximately 12 miles from Swansea. Dyffryn has a population of around 2614 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Dyffryn is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of around 152 miles.
AdBlue drains across Bridgend, Dyffryn included
Throughout the CF postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs in Dyffryn serve most of Bridgend as well, Spelter, Caerau and Nantyffyllon among them. Phone and check rather than guess when you're by a border, or anywhere tricky to explain.
Anywhere your vehicle sits — a drive at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — our technicians drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Dyffryn, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Dyffryn: the cost of fixing it
Each job differs, and so no single price is fair. What moves the price is, first, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Old Parish.
Ahead of a figure, not afterwards, every enquiry from Dyffryn begins with three checks: the fuel, the amount, and if it ran. With those replies, a range shrinks to a single firm figure.
Our quote is quoted on the call, before a van leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy whilst we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Next to the vehicle around Dyffryn, right now?
In that case, do nothing — that's the most helpful step available. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Dyffryn or anywhere in Bridgend.