AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Llangollen? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens until your engine pulls it through. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the car sits in Llangollen. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Llangollen: the first few minutes
To do:
- Pull your keys out, and so no one switches your ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting LL20 8, or whichever street is closest, and our van reaches you straight — so call wherever you stand.
Never do these:
- Shifting the vehicle just a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch down Castle Street.
- Draining your tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move your vehicle off the island if you're at a forecourt in Llangollen, whether it is the Texaco or elsewhere. On that drive, your car stays just as it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Kept in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it keeps separate instead of mixing — quite unlike fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it waits underneath the diesel, which is how a vehicle filled in Pentrefelin yesterday and never started remains the straightforward one, provided no one touches your key.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the parts it reaches for as long as it stays there. A vehicle left standing in Llangollen with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. The water in it causes harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the PB and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside your tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits back out — and the following tankful will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Llangollen or out in Berwyn, does more harm than nearly any other error.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits only in your tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to clear, anywhere the car has stopped around Denbighshire.
Llangollen: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not deliberate. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone refills the car. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a driveway close to Market Street. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside Bull Inn, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It happens most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same slip, same first response — keep it switched off — anywhere you are in Llangollen or the rest of Denbighshire.
Llangollen: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. The fuel filter and lines have had it sucked through, and some running time takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each may show up, perhaps part way across Llangollen or coming back from Ysgol Dinas Brân Garden. No starting it again to test: pull over once safe, then switch everything off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the M53, under 25 miles from Llangollen, by the next junction and park safely, rather than carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Llangollen to the car park by Llangollen Library is a very different job from a run towards Wrexham, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
We do all of the flushing where the vehicle has stopped, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Spotted soon, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Llangollen?
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Llangollen: a side street close to Llangollen Town Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies shape the job, so before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about what quantity, and if the motor has run.
Next, draining the tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away unaided, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. Fresh diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers get there, provided the engine hasn't run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Bleeding your system with fresh diesel comes last. After that our engineers fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay outside Chirk or a drive around Llangollen. Before leaving, we check it is running correctly with clean diesel in. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never has to go to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Llangollen and where it is
Llangollen is a town situated in the valley of the River Dee in Denbighshire, with a population of around 3415 people. Llangollen sits at an elevation of 122 metres, surrounded by rolling hills and mountains, and is located near the towns of Fron-Bache, Geufron, and Pen-y-Coed. Llangollen is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and its scenic riverside setting. Llangollen is also close to the city of Wrexham, which is approximately 9 miles away.
Llangollen and Denbighshire: AdBlue drains across the area
The teams that answer AdBlue calls around Llangollen also cover the spots round it, Fron-Bache, Geufron and Pen-y-Coed among them, and most of Denbighshire beyond, across the LL postcode area. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A mobile service fits Llangollen, a riverside town: you have no need to take the car to us, since we empty it on the spot, in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Llangollen
Because each callouts differ, a single price would not be honest. Three things change the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the car is. That last one comes down to whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind Memorial Hall.
That is why each call from Llangollen starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. Those replies shrink the range right down to one number.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is on the way, check your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
In Llangollen and still next to your car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to not touch it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Llangollen or anywhere within Denbighshire, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran.