AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Garth? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm happens till the motor sucks it round. In Garth, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Garth: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- Remove your keys, and that prevents someone turning the power on.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which product, and roughly what amount? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting LL49 9, or just the name of a street close by, and so phone from the car.
Don't do these:
- Moving your vehicle just a short way is no reason to start your motor.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, so it is pointless.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short way up Borth Road.
- Beside the road, do not try emptying it yourself.
Rolling the car off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Garth forecourt you're on, the BFL or any other. If you're on your own drive, leave the car just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like diesel's. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Morfa Bychan overnight and not started since counts as the simple one. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but once the motor turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
Once it's drawn in, the harm comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny channels; and, since it eats at certain metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it remains inside. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell damage overnight for a vehicle parked in Garth. Just inside the tank, it stays stable. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger issue?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes your fuel thin — that is the whole issue. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's inside that tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It can't simply be run through, since it does not burn. Whether your car sits in Portmeirion or the centre of Garth, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush matters more. Why: it won't remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following fill.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere in Gwynedd the car has stopped, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest part of any fuel system to empty.
Garth: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap, and after dark the two can appear identical. Nobody intends it. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
Usually, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside the local primary school the refill is hurried. A driver pours the container in outside their house, right off Rhesdai Garth, as the day ends. Otherwise, after dark outside Tafarn Pencei, the car is refilled by a driver using that flap for the first time.
Rented motors, new cars, company cars, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least familiar cars see it the most. Wherever you're in Garth or the rest of Gwynedd, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Garth, and the engine started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. With any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through your filter and pipework.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Parc Porthmadoc, say, or part way across Garth. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Leave it off rather than testing it again. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the Moreton Spur, over 50 miles from Garth, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Garth to the car park by Catholic Church of the Most Holy Redeemer is a very different job from a run towards Bangor, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to rinse out once your engine has run, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Permanent damage is very uncommon when it is caught early.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Garth: what it takes
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Garth: a side street near Bron-y-Garth, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers decide the work, and so before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly what quantity, plus if your engine has run.
Then the tank is cleared where the vehicle sits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue won't flush out unaided, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than for petrol. A test of your vehicle follows at the end, once fresh diesel goes in and your filter is flushed or, where necessary, replaced. If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Bleeding your system with clean diesel comes at the end. After that our technicians fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay outside Porthmadog or a driveway around Garth. Before we leave, our technicians check it's running properly with new diesel in. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Garth, briefly
Garth is a small coastal suburban area in Gwynedd, Wales, situated near the towns of Porthmadog and Tremadog. Garth has a population of around 895 people and is characterized by its terraced housing. Garth sits at an elevation of 40 metres, looking out over the coastal landscape of northwest Wales. Garth is located approximately 21 miles from the city of Bangor and 195 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Garth and Gwynedd
Porthmadog, Borth-y-Gest and Tremadog are among the places around Garth that the same vans reach, together with much of Gwynedd further out, over the LL postcode area. Guessing doesn't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; phone and check.
A van that comes to you fits Garth, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your car to us, since our technicians empty it on the spot, on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Garth
Every job is different, so not one fixed price would be honest. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Masonic Hall.
That is why every call from Garth starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. With them, the range narrows to one fixed figure.
Before anyone sets off, you hear the price by phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Garth: still next to the car?
Not touching the car is, then, the best thing you can do. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Garth or anywhere around Gwynedd.