Pant: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. The trouble starts once it's pulled through the pump — it will not ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and carefully cleaned where your car sits around Pant. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Pant, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- Remove your keys, and that stops anyone switching the electrics on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the amount, and so don't bin it out.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a CF48 2 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Never:
- Shifting your vehicle just a short way is no reason to start the motor.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short stretch along Pant Close.
- Beside the road, don't try draining it on your own.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you roll the car off the pumps if you're at a forecourt around Pant, whether it's the Asda or elsewhere. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Dowlais Top last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. It attacks certain metals used in fuel components, attacking whatever it touches till it is cleared completely. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting till morning in Pant leaves things worse. In your tank only, waiting does nothing. And there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that need it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a fault of thin fuel. Blended into the diesel and left still, it's harmless at that stage; using the motor does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Whether your vehicle sits in Morlais Castle or the heart of Pant, turning it over "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush counts more. Why: it won't remain mixed, and so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following fill.
As with petrol, there's good news. Not started? Then the AdBlue sits just in the tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to clear, anywhere your car has come to rest across Merthyr Tydfil.
Pant: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap, and after dark the two may appear the same. Nobody means it. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. The top-up is rushed outside the local primary school, after your dash lit up with a warning as the children were taken in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Pant Road. Another version: darkness, the car park by Quarrymans Arms, and someone using that flap the first time.
It takes place most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're in Pant or the remainder of Merthyr Tydfil, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Pant: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and any running takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: each may show up, maybe midway across Pant or coming back from Morlais Castle Golf Club. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
Pant lies under 25 miles from the M4; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and stop somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Pant to the car park by Christchurch Pant is a very different job from a run towards Newport, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once the motor has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it is caught soon.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Pant: what it takes
A street by Merthyr Saints Football Club, a drive, a layby or a filling station: anywhere the car has come to rest around Pant, our technicians come to it. What went in, roughly how much, and whether your motor has been run: we check before all else, since those shape the job.
Then that tank is emptied where the car waits, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Your system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Next, your filter: flushed, or replaced when it must be. Then clean diesel, and then a test of the vehicle. Not run? Then expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the system, and that is the final step. Starting the engine comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, by Merthyr Tydfil or on a driveway around Pant. The check before our technicians leave is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. Since the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Pant, briefly
Pant is a suburban area situated on the shores of a lake in Merthyr Tydfil, with Pant being one of the higher elevation communities in the area at around 333 metres. Pant sits near the communities of Pen-y-wern, Galon Uchaf, and Dowlais, and is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing. Pant is located approximately 20 miles from Newport and 139 miles from London, making it a relatively remote suburban area.
AdBlue drains across Merthyr Tydfil, Pant included
Throughout the CF postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs in Pant reach much of Merthyr Tydfil too, Pen-y-wern, Galon Uchaf and Dowlais among them. Close to a border, or anywhere tricky to explain? Checking is better than assuming, and so phone.
Wherever the vehicle sits — your drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — our technicians drain it there, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Pant, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Pant
No flat figure would be honest, since every job differs. What changes the price is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind the far end of the built-up part.
With that reason, every call from Pant opens with the same trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, if it ran — ahead of any quote. Given them, a range shrinks to one firm figure.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Look at your policy while we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Still beside your car in Pant?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether it ran is all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Merthyr Tydfil, Pant included.