Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Laugharne
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and your ignition as well. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble only starts when the pump starts drawing it. In Laugharne, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Laugharne, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do these:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, pull the keys out.
- Close to moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting SA33 4, or whatever street lies nearest, and the van finds you straight — so ring from wherever you stand.
Never do these:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Many diesels run their fuel pump the moment your ignition goes on, and so keep it off.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not thin it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance down Wogan Street.
- Beside the road, don't try draining it on your own.
Rolling the vehicle away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Laugharne forecourt you are on, the Texaco or any other. At home, your car remains just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what the engine emits. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake takes fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath your diesel, and that is why a car topped up in Cross Inn yesterday and never started remains the simple one, as long as no one touches your key.
After it's drawn in, the harm takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filters and tiny passages; and, because it eats at certain metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it stays in there. Overnight, a car parked around Laugharne with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it is only inside your tank, nothing changes. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, which is a separate kind of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol from the Shell. Damage only comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting inside your tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, so it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates again — and the next tankful won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Laugharne or out in Llandawke, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
As with petrol, there's good news. Wherever around Carmarthenshire the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Laugharne
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. A bottle picked up while heading home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical route.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent tops up the car. Near Market Lane, someone tips a bottle in at home in the evening. Else, in dim light by The New Three Mariners, the car gets topped up by someone opening that flap for the first time.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a fleet car, or the other car in a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles drivers know least. Same mistake, same first step — keep it off — wherever you happen to be in Laugharne or the rest of Carmarthenshire.
Laugharne: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. Via your filter, through the pipework, and — given any running — on to the injection pump and every injector: that's how far it has gone.
Maybe returning from St Martin's Wood, or midway across Laugharne, the engine may run lumpy, smoke, lose pace, flash your dash or cut out. Once safe, stop then turn it off — without restarting to see. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M4, under 25 miles from Laugharne, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
Hopping across Laugharne to the car park by Laugharne Town Hall is one matter; heading for Swansea, under 25 miles away, is something else, since every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
We do all of the rinsing where the car has come to a stop, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Caught quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Laugharne
The vehicle remains put, whether that is a road beside Castell Talacharn, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt around Laugharne, and the van comes to it. Three answers shape the job, and so before anything else we ask which fluid went in, roughly what quantity, plus if the engine has run.
Right there, that tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out by itself, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. Not run? Then count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Lastly, the system is bled with new diesel. Whether it is a parking space outside Ferryside or a driveway in Laugharne, that is where our engineers fire it up and you head off. The test before our technicians go is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Laugharne
Laugharne is a small coastal town in Carmarthenshire, situated on the south coast of Wales at an elevation of around 13 metres. Laugharne looks out over the estuary of the River Taf, near to the villages of Glan-y-mor and Llansadurnen. Laugharne has a population of approximately 1099 people, living mostly in detached houses, and is located about 24 miles from Swansea. Laugharne is also about 187 miles west of London, making it a relatively remote town in the UK.
AdBlue drains across Laugharne and Carmarthenshire
AdBlue call-outs around Laugharne are passed to vans that serve the towns near it — Glan-y-mor, Broadway as well as Llansadurnen — and much of Carmarthenshire further out, throughout SA postcodes. Ring and check rather than guess when you are close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
No moving is needed. In Laugharne, a coastal town, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is drained on the spot, whether on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Laugharne: the cost of fixing it
No single price would be honest, because each job is different. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the car, since an open driveway is simpler for our van to reach safely than a tight space behind Laugharne Congregational Church.
Before any figure, never after, every call from Laugharne begins with the same three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus if it ran. With them, a range narrows to a single fixed number.
You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance whilst we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Laugharne: still beside the car?
Then, do nothing — that's the best step there is. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Laugharne or anywhere in Carmarthenshire.