Pendre: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep the engine off and leave the ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the fuel system pulls it in. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and carefully purged where your car sits in Pendre. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Pendre: the first few minutes
Do:
- Remove the keys, which prevents anyone switching the electrics on.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting SY23 3, or whatever street is nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring wherever you stand.
Do not do these:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself starts the pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not thin it.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Cwrt yr Onnen.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
Get the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the pumps if you are on a forecourt in Pendre, whether it's the Texaco or elsewhere. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to your exhaust, treating what your motor lets out. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It does not blend. Once it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Waun Fawr last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it does two kinds of harm. It attacks certain metals found in fuel components, working on any part it reaches until it's removed completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow channels. A car left sitting around Pendre with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water offers none of that, which is a second kind of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol from the Morrisons. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside that tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. Whether your car sits in Penparcau or the centre of Pendre, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush counts more. Why: it will not remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following fill.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Wherever across Ceredigion your car has come to rest, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Pendre
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up when driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical story.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside the local primary school. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Brynrheidol. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills your car in dim light, stopped in the car park by Gogerddan Arms.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a brand-new car, a company vehicle, or the spare car in a family with both fuels — the vehicles people know least. Keep it off: that's the first response to the same slip, anywhere around Pendre or the remainder of Ceredigion you happen to be.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Pendre?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's where it has gone.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Aberystwyth Cricket Ground, perhaps, or part way across Pendre. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Leave the car off rather than testing it again. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M4, under 50 miles from Pendre, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere sensible is where to stop — not carrying on.
Hopping across Pendre to the car park by St Padarn's Church is one matter; heading for Swansea, over 50 miles away, is another, because each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. 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 ended up. Permanent damage is very uncommon if it's caught early.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Pendre
The vehicle remains put, whether that's a road beside Waunfawr Community Hall, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt in Pendre, and the van travels to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and if your motor has run, because those answers decide this work.
Then the tank is cleared where the car sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away unaided, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters far more with urea than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in once your filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers arrive, if your motor has not run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
The last step is to prime your system on new diesel. After that our technicians start the car and you set off, whether from a parking bay at Aberystwyth or a drive around Pendre. The check before we head off is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a garage never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Pendre and where it is
Pendre is a coastal suburban area in Ceredigion, situated near the towns of Pwllhobi and Llanbadarn Fawr, with Glanrafon also nearby. Pendre has a population of around 1441 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Pendre sits at a low elevation of 22 metres above sea level, looking out towards the coast. Pendre is located approximately 54 miles from Swansea and 178 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Pendre and Ceredigion
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Pendre also cover the places around it, Pwllhobi, Llanbadarn Fawr and Glanrafon among them, and most of Ceredigion beyond, across the SY postcode area. Ring and ask instead of guessing when you are by a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
Pendre is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle 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 moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Pendre
Because each callouts differ, a flat figure wouldn't be honest. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, since an open driveway is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight space behind Arts Centre Cinema.
That's why every call from Pendre starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it has run. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone heads out, you are told the quote by phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Still beside the vehicle in Pendre?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Pendre or anywhere in Ceredigion.