AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Gellygron? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave your engine off then keep your ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage just comes once the pump starts drawing it. In Gellygron, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Gellygron: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Pocket your keys, which prevents someone turning the power on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly how much, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting SA8 4, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Shifting the car just a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant your ignition goes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short stretch up Parc Gilbertson is too far to drive it.
- Emptying the tank yourself beside the road isn't worth trying.
Rolling the vehicle off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Gellygron forecourt you're on, the Tesco included. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
It does not combine. Once it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in Craig Llangiwg last night and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue waits at the foot of your tank, undrawn — but it will be the first thing through if the motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow channels; and, since it attacks certain metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains in there. A vehicle left sitting around Gellygron with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, and that is a second form of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger problem?
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the another forecourt nearby, and the problem is thinned fuel. Blended through the diesel and left unused, it is no threat at that stage; using your engine does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, so it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits back out — and the next tankful won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Gellygron or out in Alltwen, costs more than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits just in your tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to empty, wherever the vehicle has come to rest in Neath Port Talbot.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Gellygron: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars sits right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. The refill gets hurried outside the local primary school, after the dash flashed with a warning as the kids were taken in. Near Gelligron Road, someone tips a container in at home in the evening. One more version: dim light, the car park by The Other Place, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the spare car of a family with both fuels — the cars drivers use least. Anywhere across Neath Port Talbot, Gellygron included, the slip does not change, and neither does the first response: keep it switched off.
Gellygron: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. The filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and any running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: any might appear, maybe midway across Gellygron or returning from King George V Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M4, under 5 miles from Gellygron, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not carrying on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system. That's why crossing Gellygron to park near Pontardawe Arts Centre and a drive of under 10 miles towards Swansea are such separate jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Long-term damage is very uncommon when it is spotted quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Gellygron?
The car remains put, whether that's a street near Tŷ'r Gwrhyd, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt in Gellygron, and our van travels to it. The job rests on three answers, and we ask for before all else — what got in, the quantity, and if your engine has run.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. The fuel system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then the car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we turn up, if your engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on new diesel. Whether it is a parking space at Skewen or a drive in Gellygron, that is where we start it and you drive off. It is checked on clean diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our engineers head off. As the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Gellygron, briefly
Gellygron is a locality situated on the banks of a river in Neath Port Talbot, with an elevation of around 103 metres. Gellygron lies approximately 8 miles north of Swansea and is close to nearby places such as Pontardawe and Rhyd-y-fro. Gellygron has a population of around 901 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Gellygron is located in a region with a mix of rural and urban landscapes, near the Swansea valley.
AdBlue drains across Gellygron and Neath Port Talbot
The teams that answer AdBlue calls around Gellygron also cover the locations round it, Pontardawe, Rhyd-y-fro and Llangiwg among them, and most of Neath Port Talbot beyond, across the SA postcode area. Ring and ask instead of guessing when you're by a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
Gellygron is a small village, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Gellygron: the cost of fixing it
Every job is different, and so no single price would be fair. Three things change the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight spot behind Pontardawe Library.
With that reason, each call from Gellygron begins by asking the same trio — what was put in, what quantity, if it ran — ahead of a quote. With them, the range narrows to a single firm figure.
The quote is quoted on the call, before a van sets off; payment comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
Next to the vehicle in Gellygron, still?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the most helpful move available. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if the engine ran is all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Neath Port Talbot, Gellygron included.