Nantyglo: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the motor. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Being water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage only comes once the pump starts pulling it. In Nantyglo, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Nantyglo
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the product and the amount, so don't throw it out.
- Call just where you are. Quote a NP23 4 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Don't:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to reposition the car.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the instant your ignition goes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- Adding more diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance up Ffosmaen Road.
- Draining the tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
Moving your vehicle away from the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Nantyglo forecourt you're on, the Texaco included. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, where it treats the gas. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Winchestown overnight and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue waits at the foot of your tank, untouched — but it will be first through if your engine runs, before any diesel at all.
Once it is drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny channels; meanwhile, because it attacks certain metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. By daybreak, a car sitting in Nantyglo with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is just in your tank, it doesn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a separate form of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more major than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Murco, and this problem is thinned fuel. No harm is done while it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only when the engine works on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. It does not burn, so it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay after the following tankful, and AdBlue separates back out of the diesel, so watering it can't work. That is why the flush matters so much, and turning the key "to see" costs more here than almost any other slip — in Cwmcelyn or the heart of Nantyglo equally.
As with petrol, there is good news. Not started? Then the AdBlue sits just inside that tank, the simplest section of the entire system to empty, wherever your car has come to rest across Blaenau Gwent.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Nantyglo?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars sits right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it is not the forecourt: a driver buys a container driving home and tips it in at home.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. The refill gets rushed outside the local primary school, after the dash lit up with a warning while the children were dropped off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Co Operative Terrace. Another pattern: dim light, a pub car park outside Willow Tree, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It takes place most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it switched off: that's the first step to the same mistake, anywhere in Nantyglo or the remainder of Blaenau Gwent you are.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Nantyglo, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. It has been sucked through the fuel filter and the lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Perhaps coming back from Trevor Rowson Park, or part way across Nantyglo, the motor might run lumpy, smoke, lose power, flash the dash or cut out. Once you safely can, stop and turn everything off — with no restarting to see. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M4, under 15 miles from Nantyglo, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Mileage counts: every mile carries the AdBlue further into your system, so driving for Newport, under 25 miles away, gives a much larger job than crossing Nantyglo to the car park by Trevor Rowland memorial. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where the car has come to a stop, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it is noticed soon.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Nantyglo
The car remains where it is, whether that is a road near Holy Trinity & St Anne, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station in Nantyglo, and the van travels to it. What went in, roughly how much, plus if your motor has been run: our engineers check first, since those shape the job.
Right there, that tank is then emptied, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through since residue will not flush away unaided. Clean diesel goes in after your filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when your motor hasn't run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no fault, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
The last step is to prime your system on new diesel. Whether it's a parking bay at Ebbw Vale Town or a drive around Nantyglo, that is where we fire it up and you set off. Our technicians make sure it runs smoothly on new diesel before leaving. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Nantyglo
Nantyglo is a town in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, situated in the inland hills of south Wales at an elevation of around 360 metres. Nantyglo lies near the communities of Garn Fach, Coalbrookvale, and Coedcae, and is approximately 15 miles north of Newport. Nantyglo has a population of around 4656 people, predominantly living in terraced housing.
AdBlue drains across Nantyglo and Blaenau Gwent
The vans that answer AdBlue call-outs around Nantyglo also cover the places about it, Garn Fach, Coalbrookvale and Coedcae among them, and most of Blaenau Gwent beyond, across the NP postcode area. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Nantyglo is a town, and a mobile drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Nantyglo: the cost of fixing it
Every job is different, so no single quote would be fair. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open driveway is easier for a technician to get to safely than a tight gap behind Nantyglo and Blaina War Memorial.
Before a figure, not after, every enquiry from Nantyglo opens with three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus if it ran. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
You hear that quote by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Alongside your car around Nantyglo, right now?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to leave it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Nantyglo or anywhere within Blaenau Gwent.