AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Maesycwmmer? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Maesycwmmer. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Maesycwmmer
To do:
- Pocket the keys, which prevents anyone turning the power on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting CF82 7, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Main Road.
- By the road, do not attempt emptying it yourself.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll the vehicle off the pumps if you are on a forecourt in Maesycwmmer, whether it is the Petrol or somewhere else. On that drive, your car remains exactly where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. From a separate tank it is fed straight to your exhaust, treating what your motor emits. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the same place the pickup sucks from. A car filled on a driveway in Twyn Shon-Ifan overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but once the motor turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
It does two kinds of damage from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow channels; meanwhile, because it eats at some metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting overnight around Maesycwmmer leaves it worse. Inside the tank only, waiting costs nothing. And there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
A fault of thinned fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol at the Texaco. Blended through your diesel and left still, it's harmless for now; running the motor is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, so it cannot just be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Bryn or the middle of Maesycwmmer.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Wherever around Caerphilly the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the easiest bit of any fuel system to empty.
Maesycwmmer: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many motors put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap, and in dim light the two can appear identical. No one intends it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone tops up your car. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a driveway near Thomas Street. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park outside The Angel.
It crops up the most in a rental, a new vehicle, a fleet motor, or the spare motor in a home with one of each fuels — the cars people know the least. Wherever you're around Maesycwmmer or the rest of Caerphilly, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Maesycwmmer: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. It has been pulled through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Maybe returning from Maesycwmmer Primary Ground, or midway across Maesycwmmer, your engine may go lumpy, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or cut out. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Keep the car off rather than restarting it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Maesycwmmer sits under 10 miles from the M4; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than driving on.
Hopping across Maesycwmmer to the car park by Tabor Chapel is one matter; driving towards Newport, under 15 miles away, is something else, because every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once your engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage if it is spotted early.
Maesycwmmer: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Our technicians come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Maesycwmmer: a side street close to Wheel Of Drams, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if the motor has been run, since those answers settle this work.
Then your tank is cleared where your car sits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed right through because what remains won't wash out unaided. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians arrive, if your motor hasn't run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no issue, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Last, your system is primed with new diesel. At that point our engineers start the car and you set off, whether from a parking space outside Hengoed or a drive in Maesycwmmer. It is tested on clean diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before our technicians leave. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never has to go to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Maesycwmmer and where it is
Maesycwmmer is a village in Caerphilly, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 137 metres. Maesycwmmer lies near the communities of Hengoed, Ystrad Mynach, and Gelli-haf, and is approximately 10 miles from Newport. Maesycwmmer has a population of around 1435 people, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type. Maesycwmmer is located in a region of south Wales, within commuting distance of major cities.
Maesycwmmer and Caerphilly: AdBlue drains across the area
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs around Maesycwmmer also cover the locations about it, Hengoed, Ystrad Mynach and Gelli-haf among them, and most of Caerphilly beyond, across the CF postcode area. Assuming won't help by a county line or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and ask.
No towing is needed. In Maesycwmmer, a village, a van that comes to you fits: the vehicle is drained on the spot, whether in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Maesycwmmer?
Not one single price could be honest, since every job differs. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open driveway is easier for a van to reach safely than a tight space behind Hengoed Wool Mill.
What went in, how much, and whether the engine ran: every Maesycwmmer call opens with precisely that, ahead of any quote, not after. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Our price is given during the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still alongside the car around Maesycwmmer?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran is everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Caerphilly, Maesycwmmer included.