Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hawthorn
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave your motor off then keep the ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. As it is water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; trouble only comes when the pump starts pulling it. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly flushed where your car stands in Hawthorn. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Hawthorn
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- Which product, and roughly how much amount? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians can see.
- Call just where you are. Quote a CF37 5 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Never:
- Shifting your car even a few yards is no reason to start your motor.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the moment your ignition goes on, and so keep the car off.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not thin it.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance along A470.
- Beside the road, don't attempt emptying it on your own.
Rolling the vehicle away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever Hawthorn forecourt you're on, the Tesco or any other. At home, the vehicle stays just where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. Nothing inside a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and none of it was meant to travel through one.
It doesn't combine. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Treforest last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. It eats at certain metals used in fuel components, working on whatever it touches until it is cleared from your system. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in tiny passages. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell damage by morning for a vehicle parked in Hawthorn. Only in the tank, it stays the same. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel flowing past them, so the water content damages them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
A fault of thin fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Esso. Mixed through your diesel and sitting still, it is no threat at that stage; using the motor does the harm.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits back out — and the next fill won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Hawthorn or out in Ton-Teg, does more harm than nearly any other error.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever in Rhondda Cynon Taf your car has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue still inside the tank: the easiest part of any fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Hawthorn?
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap — may look the same. Nobody means it; many designs invite it. A container bought while heading home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. The top-up gets hurried outside the local primary school, after the dash lit up with a warning as the kids were taken off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Maes Yr Awel. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by Hawthorn Inn.
Hired motors, new motors, company cars, or the second car in a home with both fuels: the least familiar cars get it most. Same mistake, same first step — keep it off — anywhere you are around Hawthorn or the remainder of Rhondda Cynon Taf.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Hawthorn?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing via the fuel filter and pipework.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Coed Craig-lwyd, say, or midway across Hawthorn. When safe, stop then turn it off — without turning it on again to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Hawthorn sits under 5 miles from the M4; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than driving on.
Distance counts: every mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so driving towards Cardiff, under 10 miles away, gives a far larger job than hopping across Hawthorn to the car park by Rhydyfelin Methodist Church. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage when it's caught early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Hawthorn?
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Hawthorn: a side street close to Climbing Station, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What went in, about the quantity, and whether the motor has been run: our engineers ask before all else, because those decide the job.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together after that tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because what remains will not flush out unaided. Testing the vehicle comes last, once fresh diesel is added and your filter gets flushed or, where needed, swapped. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once we arrive, provided your motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that's the final step. You head off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive in Hawthorn or in a bay outside Trefforest Estate. Before we leave, our technicians confirm it is running properly with fresh diesel in. No workshop is required at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Hawthorn
Hawthorn is a suburban area in Rhondda Cynon Taf, situated near the River Taff at an elevation of 51 metres. Hawthorn lies close to the nearby communities of Rhydyfelin, Upper Boat, and Upper Church Village, and is approximately 8.7 miles from Cardiff. Hawthorn is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and its location within the wider Cardiff urban area.
Hawthorn and Rhondda Cynon Taf: AdBlue drains across the area
Rhydyfelin, Upper Boat and Upper Church Village are among the towns near Hawthorn that the same vans reach, together with most of Rhondda Cynon Taf beyond, throughout the CF postcode area. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
Wherever your car sits — a drive at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers empty it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Hawthorn, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Hawthorn
Since the callouts vary, a flat figure would not be fair. Three things move the price: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether a van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight space behind Arthur's Gym.
That is why every call from Hawthorn starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Before anyone heads out, you hear our quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Look at your insurance while we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
In Hawthorn and still alongside the vehicle?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to not touch it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Hawthorn or anywhere around Rhondda Cynon Taf.