AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Frampton? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. The trouble begins once it is sucked through the lines — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Frampton, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the motor has run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Frampton: the first few minutes
To do:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, take the keys away.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, and so don't throw it out.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting CF61 2, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance up Frampton Lane is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Beside the road, don't try draining it on your own.
The attendants working at any Frampton forecourt — the Esso among them — will normally help pushing it clear if you ask. At your own drive, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it goes straight to the exhaust, cleaning what the engine emits. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays apart rather than mixing — quite unlike fuel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the same place the intake draws from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it waits underneath your diesel, and that is why a vehicle topped up in Caermead yesterday and never switched on stays the simple case, provided nobody touches your key.
Two kinds of harm come from there. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, working on any part it reaches until it is removed from the system. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow passages. A car left sitting around Frampton with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the another forecourt nearby, and this issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's inside that tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Sigingstone or the middle of Frampton.
As with petrol, there's good news. Not run? Then the AdBlue waits only in the tank, the simplest section of the whole system to empty, wherever the car has stopped around The Vale of Glamorgan.
Frampton: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside the local primary school, after your dash flashed with a warning as the kids were taken in. A driver pours the bottle in outside their house, just off Heol Pentre'r Cwrt, as the day ends. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside Blacksmith's Arms, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
Hired cars, brand-new cars, fleet vehicles, or the second car in a family with both fuels: the least known cars get it the most. Leave it off: that's the first step to the same mistake, wherever in Frampton or the rest of The Vale of Glamorgan you happen to be.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Frampton, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Via the fuel filter, along the lines, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is how far it has gone.
You may see your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Windmill Lane Playing Fields or halfway across Frampton. When you safely can, stop then turn everything off — with no restarting to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M4, under 10 miles from Frampton, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Frampton to the car park by Old Place is a very different job from a run towards Cardiff, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the engine has been run. When it's spotted soon, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Frampton
Wherever it has come to rest in Frampton — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a road beside Llantwit Major Library — our van travels to your car. What went in, about the quantity, and whether the motor has turned over: our technicians ask first, because those decide the job.
Next, emptying the tank right there takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed all the way through because residue won't wash away by itself. A test of the vehicle follows at the end, once fresh diesel goes in and the filter is cleaned or, if necessary, swapped. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, provided your motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the final step. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, outside Llantwit Major or on a drive around Frampton. Before leaving, we confirm it is running smoothly with clean diesel in. No workshop is required at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Frampton, for a moment
Frampton is a small coastal hamlet in the Vale of Glamorgan, situated near the towns of Llanmaes and Llantwit Major. Frampton has a population of around 534 people and is characterized by semi-detached housing. Frampton sits at an elevation of 47 metres, close to the Welsh coast and within commuting distance of Cardiff, the nearest city. Frampton is located approximately 144.5 miles west of London.
Frampton and The Vale of Glamorgan: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the CF postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs around Frampton reach much of The Vale of Glamorgan as well, Llanmaes, Llantwit Major and West-end Town among them. Assuming won't help by a border or anywhere tricky to pin down; phone and check.
Wherever your vehicle stands — your drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — our engineers drain it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; which suits Frampton, a rural hamlet, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Frampton?
Every job differs, so no single quote would be honest. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Llantwit Major Heath Centre.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, and if the engine ran: each Frampton enquiry opens with precisely that, ahead of any figure, not after. When they are answered, a range becomes one fixed number.
Before anyone heads out, you hear the quote on the phone. And you pay on the day, card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still next to your car in Frampton?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the best thing you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran are everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across The Vale of Glamorgan, Frampton included.