Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in New Inn
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the engine. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the fuel system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in New Inn, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the engine has run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in New Inn
Do these:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about how much, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting NP4 0, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Don't:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way up Golf Road.
- Do not try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
The attendants working at any New Inn forecourt — the Shell among them — will usually lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It sinks, because it is denser than diesel, and pools down where the intake takes its fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Griffithstown last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. What is left when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny passages and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it is cleared out. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting overnight in New Inn makes things worse. Inside that tank alone, waiting costs nothing. The water in it does damage 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 fault?
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Esso, and the problem is thinned fuel. No damage comes as long as it sits unused, mixed into your diesel — only when the motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay through the following tankful, and AdBlue separates again out of your diesel, and so watering it can't work. That is why the flush counts more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other mistake — in Llanvihangel Pontymoel or the heart of New Inn alike.
As with petrol, there's good news. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever across Torfaen your car has stopped.
New Inn: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. A container bought while driving home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual story.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside the local primary school the refill is hurried. Close to Caroline Road, a driver tips a container in on the drive after work. One more pattern: dim light, a pub car park by Teazer Inn, and someone using that flap the first time.
Hired vehicles, brand-new vehicles, fleet vehicles, or the spare vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles get it most. Wherever you're around New Inn or the rest of Torfaen, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around New Inn?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Given any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing via the filter and pipework.
Watch for rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Coed y Canddo, say, or midway across New Inn. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M4, under 10 miles from New Inn, by the next junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why a hop across New Inn to park beside PILCS Social Club and a drive of under 10 miles towards Newport are very distinct jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once the engine has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Permanent damage is very rare when it's noticed soon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in New Inn
A street beside New Inn Congregational Church, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere your vehicle has come to rest in New Inn, our technicians come to it. Which fluid went in, about the quantity, plus if your engine has turned over: our engineers ask before all else, because those decide the work.
Then your tank is cleared where the car waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is flushed right through since residue will not wash away by itself. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then the car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, if your motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Bleeding the fuel system with clean diesel comes at the end. Whether it is a parking bay at Pontypool and New Inn or a drive in New Inn, that is where we start the car and you set off. Our technicians make sure it runs smoothly on clean diesel before we go. Because the job is done in full where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About New Inn and where it is
New Inn is a suburban area in Torfaen, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 114 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. New Inn is located near several nearby places, including Lower New Inn, Pont-y-felin, and Panteg, and is approximately 7.2 miles from the city of Newport. New Inn has a population of around 3735 residents, who live in a mix of old and new buildings. New Inn is also relatively close to major cities, with London being around 124.4 miles away.
AdBlue drains across New Inn and Torfaen
AdBlue call-outs around New Inn go to teams that serve the places near it — Lower New Inn, Pont-y-felin as well as Panteg — and much of Torfaen beyond, across NP postcodes. Assuming doesn't help by a border or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and ask.
No moving is needed. In New Inn, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: your vehicle is emptied where it stands, whether on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around New Inn?
Because each jobs differ, a single figure would not be honest. Three things change the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight space behind St Mary's Church.
With that in mind, every enquiry from New Inn opens with the identical trio — what went in, how much, if it ran — before a figure. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Still beside the vehicle around New Inn?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if the engine ran are all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Torfaen, New Inn included.