Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Gendros
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and the ignition too. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. Being water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; damage just starts when your pump starts pulling it. Caught before the engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Gendros. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Gendros
Things to do:
- Take your keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting SA5 8, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance along McRitchie Place is too far to drive it.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the verge.
At a forecourt in Gendros, whether it's the Murco or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle clear of the pump. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate tank it is fed directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine emits. No part inside an injection pump is made for this fluid — and no part of it was intended to travel that way.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It drops, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the pickup takes its fuel from. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it waits beneath your diesel, and that is how a car topped up in Cockett yesterday and never switched on stays the straightforward case, provided no one turns the key.
It does two kinds of harm from there. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, attacking whatever it touches till it's removed from the system. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in narrow passages. Overnight, a vehicle sitting around Gendros with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is just in that tank, nothing changes. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers none of that, and that is a separate form of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Applegreen and you have a problem of thin fuel. Blended into the diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless at that stage; running your motor does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It can't just be run through, since it doesn't burn. Whether your vehicle is in Pen-lan or the centre of Gendros, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and that tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Swansea your car is sitting.
Gendros: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. It usually happens outside the house, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside the local primary school. After work, a container is tipped in on a driveway close to Middle Road. One more version: darkness, the car park by Mile End, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
Hired cars, new cars, fleet cars, or the second vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least familiar cars get it most. Same slip, same first response — leave it switched off — anywhere you happen to be in Gendros or the remainder of Swansea.
Gendros: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. With any running, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via the fuel filter and lines.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might show up, perhaps midway across Gendros or coming back from Gendros Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M4, under 3 miles from Gendros, at the first junction and stop somewhere safe, not driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Gendros to the car park by Gendros Community Centre is a very different job from a run towards Swansea, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the engine has been started. When it's noticed quickly, lasting damage is very uncommon.
Gendros: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
A road beside Gendros Congregational Church, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has come to rest around Gendros, we come to it. Which fluid was put in, about how much, and whether your motor has turned over: our engineers check first, since those decide the job.
Then your tank is emptied where the vehicle stands, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed right through because residue will not flush out by itself. Clean diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming your system with fresh diesel comes at the end. You drive off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway around Gendros or in a space outside Swansea. It's tested on new diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our technicians go. Because the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Gendros and where it is
Gendros is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Swansea, situated approximately 1.8 miles from the city centre. Gendros sits at an elevation of around 110 metres, overlooking the coastal landscape of Swansea Bay. Gendros is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, with nearby neighbourhoods including Raven Hill and Cwmdu.
AdBlue drains around Gendros and across Swansea
Raven Hill, Cwmdu and Caer-eithin are among the places around Gendros that the same vans reach, along with most of Swansea further out, throughout the SA postcode area. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
No towing is needed. In Gendros, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: your vehicle is drained where it stands, be it on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Gendros: the cost of fixing it
Not one single price would be fair, since each job differs. What shifts the cost is, firstly, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Gorse Avenue Community Centre.
That is why every call from Gendros starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it has run. With them, a range shrinks to one fixed number.
Before a van sets off, you are told the quote by phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
In Gendros and still alongside your car?
Not touching the car is, then, the most useful thing you can do. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether the engine ran are everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Swansea, Gendros too.