Ogmore Vale: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition as well. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm starts till the motor sucks it through. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and thoroughly cleaned where the car stands around Ogmore Vale. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Ogmore Vale
Things to do:
- Pull the keys out, and so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting CF32 7, or whichever street is nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring from wherever you are.
Don't do these:
- Shifting the vehicle just a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- Adding extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short way along Commercial Street.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the roadside.
Moving your vehicle away from the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Ogmore Vale forecourt you're on, the the nearest petrol station or any other. On the drive, the car stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in an injection pump is designed for this fluid — and none of it was intended to go that way.
It doesn't combine. Once it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. Denser than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the same place the intake sucks from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Lewistown last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It does two kinds of damage from there. It eats at certain metals found in fuel systems, attacking any part it reaches until it is removed from your system. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny passages. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean damage overnight for a vehicle sitting in Ogmore Vale. Only inside that tank, it stays stable. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water gives none of that, which is a separate kind of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
Petrol put into a diesel on Blackmil Service Station's forecourt makes your fuel thin — that's the main problem. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting in the tank, it causes none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Tylagwyn or the middle of Ogmore Vale.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Bridgend your car is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Ogmore Vale
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors sits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's not the forecourt: someone buys a bottle heading home and pours it in outside the house.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside the local primary school. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway near Llywelyn Street. Otherwise, after dark by the pub in the village, the car is topped up by someone using that flap for the first time.
The least known cars get it most — hire cars, new cars, company cars, and the spare vehicle in a home with one of each fuel types. Wherever you are in Ogmore Vale or the rest of Bridgend, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Ogmore Vale: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. With any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, after passing through your filter and lines.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a stall — returning from Aber Field, perhaps, or part way across Ogmore Vale. When safe, stop and turn it off — without turning it on again to see. Every start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M4, under 5 miles from Ogmore Vale, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Ogmore Vale to the car park by Calvary Baptist Chapel is a very different job from a run towards Swansea, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There's more to clean out once your engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where the car has stopped. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage when it is noticed soon.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Ogmore Vale
Anywhere it has stopped around Ogmore Vale — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside Carn-yr-hyrddod — the van travels to the car. What got in, about the quantity, and if your motor has been run: our technicians check first, since those decide the job.
On the spot, your tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away by itself, so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in after the filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where your engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on clean diesel. You set off as soon as we have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive in Ogmore Vale or in a space at Ton Pentre. Our technicians check it runs properly on clean diesel before leaving. No garage is required at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. At the end, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Ogmore Vale itself
Ogmore Vale is a small village in Bridgend, situated on the banks of the River Ogmore in south Wales. Ogmore Vale has a population of around 1196 people and is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing. Ogmore Vale is located near other villages such as Wyndham, Price Town, and Nant-y-moel, and is approximately 17 miles from the city of Swansea. Ogmore Vale sits at an elevation of 151 metres above sea level, in a scenic riverside setting.
AdBlue drains across Ogmore Vale and Bridgend
Wyndham, Price Town and Nant-y-moel are among the towns near Ogmore Vale that the same teams reach, together with much of Bridgend further out, over the CF postcode area. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A van that comes to you fits Ogmore Vale, a village: you have no need to bring the car to us, since we empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
Ogmore Vale: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one flat price could be fair, since each job is different. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind St Cein.
What got in, how much, and if the engine ran: each Ogmore Vale call begins by asking precisely those, before a figure, not afterwards. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van sets off, you are told the quote by phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Check your policy while we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
In Ogmore Vale and still alongside the vehicle?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the most useful move you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Ogmore Vale or anywhere in Bridgend.