Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hendreforgan
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep your motor off and leave your ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm happens till your engine pulls it round. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly flushed where the car stands around Hendreforgan. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Hendreforgan
To do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about how much volume? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can know.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting CF39 8, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Shifting the vehicle even a short way is no reason to start your engine.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start your pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not thin it.
- Even a short way down Alfred Street is too far to drive the car.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself by the kerbside.
The staff working at any Hendreforgan forecourt — the Gulf among them — will normally help pushing it aside if you ask. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in an injection pump is made for this fluid — and no part of it was intended to travel that way.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays apart instead of mixing — quite different from fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. When your system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath your diesel, and that is how a car topped up in Bryngolau last night and never switched on stays the simple one, as long as nobody turns the key.
After it is pulled in, the harm takes two forms. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny channels and clog filters. Worse, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it is cleared out. Overnight, a car sitting in Hendreforgan with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it is just in that tank, it doesn't. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Shell, and the issue is thinned fuel. Damage only comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside that tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Whether the vehicle sits in Tyn-y-bryn or the heart of Hendreforgan, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever across Rhondda Cynon Taf your vehicle has stopped, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to clear.
Hendreforgan: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. A container bought when heading home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone tops up the vehicle. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Penybryn Street. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside Griffin Inn, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
The least known vehicles get it the most — hire cars, brand-new ones, company cars, and the spare car in a home with both fuel types. An identical mistake, an identical first step — leave it switched off — wherever you are in Hendreforgan or the rest of Rhondda Cynon Taf.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hendreforgan?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It has been drawn through the filter and your lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, falling power, warnings on the dash, or a stall — returning from Dai's Park, perhaps, or part way across Hendreforgan. When safe, stop then switch everything off — with no restarting to test. Every start pulls more of that through.
Hendreforgan sits under 5 miles from the M4; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
Distance matters: every mile carries the AdBlue further in, so driving for Cardiff, under 15 miles away, gives a far bigger job than hopping across Hendreforgan to the car park by Saint David's Church. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Caught early, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Hendreforgan?
Our technicians come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Hendreforgan: a side street close to Capel Farm Community Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job depends on three replies, and our technicians ask for before all else — what went in, the quantity, and whether your engine has turned over.
Next, draining the tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue won't wash away by itself, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Not run? Then expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Priming your system with clean diesel comes at the end. Whether it is a parking bay by Tonypandy or a driveway in Hendreforgan, that is where our engineers start the engine and you head off. Before we go, our technicians make sure it is running properly with fresh diesel in. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Hendreforgan, for a moment
Hendreforgan is a village in Rhondda Cynon Taf, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 209 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Hendreforgan lies near several nearby villages, including Gilfach Garden Village, Gilfach Goch, and Evanstown. Hendreforgan is located approximately 14.5 miles from Cardiff, the nearest city, and is about 143.7 miles from London. Hendreforgan has a population of around 1572 residents.
AdBlue drains across Rhondda Cynon Taf, Hendreforgan included
Gilfach Garden Village, Gilfach Goch and Evanstown are among the places near Hendreforgan that the same vans serve, together with most of Rhondda Cynon Taf further out, over the CF postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; phone and check.
A mobile service fits Hendreforgan, a village: there's no need to take the car to us, because our engineers empty it there, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Hendreforgan: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one flat price could be fair, since each job is different. Three things change the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether a van can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight space behind Mount Zion English Baptist Church.
With that in mind, each enquiry from Hendreforgan begins by asking the identical trio — what was put in, what quantity, whether it ran — ahead of a figure. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
The price is given during the call, before a van sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Next to your car around Hendreforgan, right now?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful move open to you. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether the engine ran is everything we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Rhondda Cynon Taf, Hendreforgan too.