AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Fairwater? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave your engine off then keep the ignition off. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Being water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; damage only comes once the pump begins pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Fairwater, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Fairwater: the first few minutes
Do:
- Take your keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the amount, so do not bin it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting CF5 3, or whatever street is nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring wherever you are.
Do not:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel won't weaken it.
- Keep the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way down Poplar Road.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself at the kerbside.
Rolling your car away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Fairwater forecourt you're on, the Texaco included. If you are on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. From a separate reservoir it is fed directly to the exhaust, treating what your motor lets out. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake takes fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Llandaff North last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. It eats at certain metals used in fuel components, working on any part it reaches until it's cleared from your system. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny passages. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it overnight around Fairwater makes it worse. Inside your tank only, time does nothing. Then there is the water: it brings no protection to the components that need it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
A problem of thinned fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Radyr Service Station. Mixed into the diesel and left unused, it is harmless for now; running the motor does the damage.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. It can't just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates back out — and the next tankful won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Fairwater or out in St Fagans, does more harm than almost any other error.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere across Cardiff the car has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Fairwater
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. It usually occurs outside the house, from a container bought en route home, not at the forecourt.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside the local primary school. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway close to Plas-Mawr Road. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills the car after dark, stopped in the car park by The Fairwater.
Hired vehicles, new vehicles, fleet motors, or the spare vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least known cars see it the most. Keep it off: that is the first response to the same mistake, wherever around Fairwater or the remainder of Cardiff you are.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Fairwater?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been pulled through the filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash, or a stall — coming back from Fairwater Recreation Ground, say, or part way across Fairwater. No starting it again to test: stop when it is safe, then turn everything off. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M4, under 3 miles from Fairwater, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere sensible is where to stop — not driving on.
Hopping across Fairwater to the car park by Cardiff Ski & Snowboard Centre is one thing; heading for Cardiff, under 5 miles away, is something else, because every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. If it is caught quickly, long-term damage is very rare.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Fairwater: what it takes
A road beside Fairwater Hub, a drive, a layby or a filling station: anywhere your car has stopped in Fairwater, our technicians travel to it. Which fluid went in, about how much, plus if your motor has been run: we ask first, since those decide the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together when your tank is emptied, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue won't flush out unaided, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts far more here than with petrol. After that, your filter: flushed, or changed when it must be. Then clean diesel, then a check of your vehicle. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to bleed your system on new diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, by the nearest station or on a drive in Fairwater. The test before our technicians head off is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. No workshop is required at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Fairwater
Fairwater is a suburban area in Cardiff, situated near the River Ely and close to the city centre. Fairwater has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Fairwater is located near several other suburbs, including Pentrebane, Llandaff, and Ely, and is about 3 miles from Cardiff city centre. Fairwater sits at a relatively low elevation of around 23 metres above sea level.
AdBlue drains across Fairwater and Cardiff
Throughout the CF postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs in Fairwater reach most of Cardiff as well, Pentrebane, Llandaff and Ely included. Guessing won't help by a border or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
Fairwater is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Fairwater: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job differs, so not one fixed quote would be honest. What changes the cost is, firstly, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind St. David's Lutheran Church.
Before any figure, never afterwards, each enquiry from Fairwater opens with three checks: the liquid, the quantity, and if it ran. Once they are known, a range turns into one fixed number.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
In Fairwater and still beside the vehicle?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the most useful thing you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether the engine ran is all we ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Cardiff, Fairwater too.