AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Gabalfa? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. The trouble starts once it is sucked through your lines — it won't ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly cleaned where the car sits in Gabalfa. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Gabalfa: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- Take the keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Ring right where you are. Quote a CF14 2 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to shift the vehicle.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding extra diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way down Cathedral View.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
Rolling your vehicle off the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Gabalfa forecourt you are on, the Tesco included. At your own driveway, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, where it cleans the gas. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump cannot deal with urea.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. The intake takes fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it waits underneath the diesel, which is why a car filled in Birchgrove last night and not started remains the simple case, as long as no one turns the key.
Two kinds of damage follow 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 working on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. A car left sitting around Gabalfa with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
A problem of thin fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Texaco. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in your tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Whether the car is in Maindy or the heart of Gabalfa, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush matters more. Why: it won't stay blended, and so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Anywhere around Cardiff the car has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest bit of a fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Gabalfa: how it ends up there
It is not deliberate. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. A container bought when heading home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual story.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside the local primary school the top-up is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Gabalfa Avenue. Else, after dark outside The Master Gunner, your car is topped up by a driver using that flap for the first time.
The least familiar cars see it most — hire cars, brand-new ones, company ones, and the other car of a home with one of each fuel types. An identical slip, same first step — leave it switched off — anywhere you are around Gabalfa or the remainder of Cardiff.
Gabalfa: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. It's been sucked through the filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Maybe coming back from Lydstep Park, or midway across Gabalfa, your motor might go rough, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or stall. No restarting to test: stop once it is safe, then turn everything off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M4, under 3 miles from Gabalfa, at the first junction and park safely, not driving on.
A quick hop across Gabalfa to the car park by Cardiff Draconians is one thing; driving for Cardiff, under 3 miles away, is another, because every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Tell us about how far it had come.
There is more to flush once your engine has run, and we do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Spotted quickly, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Gabalfa
A road beside Emmanuel Baptist Church, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your vehicle has come to rest in Gabalfa, our technicians come to it. What went in, about the quantity, and whether your engine has been run: our engineers ask before all else, since those decide the job.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue in one go. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains won't wash out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after your filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when the engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Bleeding the system with clean diesel comes at the end. Whether it's a parking space at Llandaf or a driveway in Gabalfa, that is where our engineers start the engine and you head off. Before leaving, we confirm it's running smoothly with new diesel in. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a garage never comes into it. Afterwards, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Gabalfa and where it is
Gabalfa is a suburban area in Cardiff, situated on the banks of the River Taff at an elevation of around 16 metres. Gabalfa is located approximately 2.2 miles northwest of Cardiff city centre, near neighbouring areas such as Llandaff North, Pontcanna, and Llandaff. Gabalfa has a population of around 6194 people and is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock.
AdBlue drains in Gabalfa and across Cardiff
AdBlue jobs in Gabalfa go to vans that serve the places near it — Llandaff North, Pontcanna plus Llandaff — and most of Cardiff further out, across CF postcodes. Near a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
Wherever the car sits — your drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — our technicians empty it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; which suits Gabalfa, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Gabalfa: the cost of fixing it
There's no fair single quote, since the jobs are not the same. What moves the cost is, first of all, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Our Lady of Lourdes.
For that reason, every call from Gabalfa begins with the same trio — what was put in, how much, if the engine ran — ahead of any figure. Their answers shrink a range right down to one figure.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. As our engineer is on the way, dig out your insurance: many include misfuelling.
Gabalfa: still alongside the vehicle?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether the engine ran is all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Cardiff, Gabalfa too.