Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Mayhill
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep your motor off and leave the ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the fuel system draws it in. Caught before the engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Mayhill. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Mayhill
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about what quantity, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting SA1 6, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Do not:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not weaken it.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch along Carig Crescent.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
Ask the attendants to help you roll the car away from the pumps if you're at a forecourt around Mayhill, whether it is the Murco or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed directly to the exhaust, treating what your motor emits. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It doesn't blend. Once it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the very spot the intake draws from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it sits underneath the diesel, and that is how a vehicle filled in Cae-Bricks last night and never started stays the simple case, as long as nobody turns the key.
After it's drawn in, the damage takes two forms. 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 labouring on the components it reaches for as long as it remains there. Lines carrying AdBlue spell harm by morning for a vehicle parked in Mayhill. Just in the tank, it stays the same. And there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that need it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Texaco and you have a problem of thin fuel. No damage is done while it stays put, mixed into your diesel — only when your motor works on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. It does not burn, so it can't just be run through. Whether the car is in Cwmdu or the centre of Mayhill, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever around Swansea the car sits.
Mayhill: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it's never the filling station: a driver picks up a container driving home and tips it in at home.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. The refill is hurried outside the local primary school, because the dash flashed with a warning while the kids were dropped in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Townhill Road. One more version: darkness, a pub car park outside Fairfield Social Club, and a driver using that flap the first time.
It comes up most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a fleet vehicle, or the other vehicle in a family with one of each fuels — the cars people know the least. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to the same slip, anywhere around Mayhill or the remainder of Swansea you happen to be.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Mayhill, and the engine started?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Your filter and lines have had it sucked through, and some running time takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a stall — returning from Rosehill Quarry Nature Reserve, perhaps, or part way across Mayhill. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Leave the vehicle off rather than testing it again. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the M4, under 5 miles from Mayhill, at the next junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Mayhill to the car park by Our Lady of Lourdes Church is a very different job from a run towards Swansea, under a mile away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
There's more to flush once the engine has been started, and our technicians do all of it where the car has ended up. When it is caught early, lasting damage is very unusual.
Mayhill: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Mayhill: a side street close to Rosehill Quarry Labyrinth, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether your motor has been run, because those replies decide this work.
Next, draining that tank right there removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. Your system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers turn up, provided your engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on new diesel. After that we start it and you head off, whether from a parking space outside Swansea or a driveway in Mayhill. It is tested on new diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before our engineers leave. Because the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Mayhill and where it is
Mayhill is a suburban area in Swansea, situated on the coastal side of the city, approximately 0.9 miles from the city centre. Mayhill sits at an elevation of around 83 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Mayhill is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting the area's historical development patterns. Mayhill is close to other nearby suburbs, including Mount Pleasant, Townhill, and Cwmbwrla.
AdBlue drains across Swansea, Mayhill included
Over the SA postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs around Mayhill reach much of Swansea as well, Mount Pleasant, Townhill and Cwmbwrla included. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Anywhere the car sits — your drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — we empty it there, with no need to take it to us; which suits Mayhill, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Mayhill
There is no fair single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. Three things change the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one rests on whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind Terrace Road Presbyterian Church.
That's why every call from Mayhill starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it has run. Given those replies, a range shrinks to a single firm number.
The quote is given during the call, before anyone leaves; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Mayhill: still next to your car?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the best thing open to you. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Mayhill or wherever in Swansea, after you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran.