Garth: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition too. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the system draws it in. In Garth, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Garth, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which fluid, and about what quantity? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians will see.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting SY23 3, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to reposition the car.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment your ignition comes on, and so keep it off.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance along Ger-Y-Cwm.
- No draining it yourself, either, at the verge.
The attendants working at any Garth filling station — the BP among them — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. On your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what the motor lets out. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Poured in with the diesel, it keeps apart instead of blending — entirely different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A vehicle topped up on a driveway in Plas Gogerddan overnight and not started since counts as the simple one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though once the engine turns, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. What remains when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny channels and block filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it is flushed out. Overnight, a vehicle sitting in Garth with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it is just in that tank, it doesn't. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Petrol put into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that is the main issue. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's in the tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether your vehicle is in Pen-rhiw-newydd or the centre of Garth, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. Why: it will not stay blended, so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the following tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever across Ceredigion your car sits.
Garth: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap — can appear the same. Nobody intends it; many designs allow it. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside the local primary school. Someone tips the bottle in outside their house, just off Cae'r Pandy, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap refills your car after dark, parked in the car park outside the pub in the village.
It comes up most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a fleet motor, or the other motor of a family with one of each fuel types — the cars people know least. Leave it switched off: that's the first response to the same slip, wherever around Garth or the remainder of Ceredigion you are.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Garth?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and any running time carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any might appear, maybe part way across Garth or returning from Coed Pencwm. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Garth sits under 50 miles from the M4; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Garth to the car park by Capel Horeb is a very different job from a run towards Bangor, over 50 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where the car has come to a stop, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. When it's noticed quickly, lasting damage is very unusual.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Garth
Anywhere it has stopped around Garth — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a road beside Eglwys Sant Ioan — our van travels to your vehicle. Which fluid got in, about the quantity, plus if your engine has been run: our engineers ask first, since those decide the job.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. What remains from AdBlue won't flush out unaided, so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters far more here than for petrol. A test of the vehicle comes at the end, after fresh diesel goes in and the filter gets cleaned or, where needed, swapped. If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Bleeding the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, by Bow Street or on a drive around Garth. Before we go, we make sure it's running correctly with clean diesel in. We do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to go to a garage. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Garth itself
Garth is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Ceredigion, Wales, with a relatively low elevation of 70 metres. Garth is located near several smaller communities, including Penrhyn-coch, Cefn Llwyd, and Broginin, and is characterized by predominantly detached housing. Garth is also within driving distance of larger urban centres, such as Bangor, which is approximately 55 miles away.
Garth and Ceredigion: AdBlue drains across the area
Penrhyn-coch, Cefn Llwyd and Broginin are among the towns near Garth that the same vans serve, along with most of Ceredigion further out, throughout the SY postcode area. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Garth is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle 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 moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Garth: the cost of fixing it
Not one single price would be fair, because every job differs. What moves the cost is, first of all, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Neuadd yr Eglwys, Penrhyn-coch.
With that in mind, each call from Garth opens by asking the same trio — what went in, what quantity, if the engine ran — before any figure. Their answers shrink a range right down to a single figure.
The quote is quoted during the call, before a van leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Check your insurance whilst we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Still next to the car in Garth?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to leave it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Garth or anywhere within Ceredigion, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran.