AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Penllyn? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition too. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Being water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble only starts once the pump begins drawing it. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Penllyn. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do right now, Penllyn: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting CF71 7, or whatever street is closest, and our van finds you straight — so call wherever you are.
Don't do these:
- Moving your car even a short way is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant your ignition goes on, so leave it off.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's pointless.
- Do not drive it anywhere, not even a short way down Ruthin Road.
- Draining your tank yourself by the road is not worth trying.
The staff working at any Penllyn forecourt — the Texaco included — will normally lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. At your own driveway, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. 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 West Village 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 drawn it in.
After it is pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. Lines holding AdBlue spell harm overnight for a car sitting in Penllyn. Only inside your tank, it stays stable. Then there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that need it most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Murco, and this problem is thinned fuel. Damage only comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and left in your tank, it does nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. It cannot simply be run through, since it does not burn. Whether your car is in St Mary Hill or the heart of Penllyn, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, and so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
As with petrol, there's good news. Wherever around The Vale of Glamorgan your vehicle has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest part of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Penllyn
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind one flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. It mostly occurs outside the house, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, not at the filling station.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. The refill is hurried outside the local primary school, after your dash lit up with a warning while the children were dropped off. Close to Clos Meurig, someone pours a container in on the drive after work. Otherwise, in dim light outside The Red Fox, your car is refilled by a driver using that flap for the first time.
Rented vehicles, new motors, fleet cars, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least familiar cars get it most. Wherever around The Vale of Glamorgan, Penllyn as well, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first response: keep it off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Penllyn?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through your filter, along the lines, and — given any running — into the injection pump and every injector: that is how far it travels.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may appear, perhaps part way across Penllyn or coming back from Coed y Castell. Once you safely can, pull over and switch everything off — with no turning it on again to see. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M4, under 3 miles from Penllyn, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why crossing Penllyn to park beside Cowbridge United Free Church and a drive of under 15 miles for Cardiff are such separate jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There's more to clean out once the engine has been run, and we do all of it where the car has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is noticed early.
Penllyn: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
The car stays where it is, whether that's a road near Cowbridge Athletic Club, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station in Penllyn, and our van travels to it. What was put in, about the quantity, plus whether your engine has turned over: our engineers check first, because those shape the work.
On the spot, the tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. The fuel system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where the motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the last step. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, at Pencoed or on a driveway in Penllyn. The test before we go is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Penllyn
Penllyn is a small village in the Vale of Glamorgan, situated inland at an elevation of 84 metres. Penllyn lies approximately 13 miles west of Cardiff and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Penllyn is surrounded by nearby places such as Pentre Meyrick and Graig Penllyn, and is part of a wider rural landscape in south Wales.
Penllyn and The Vale of Glamorgan: AdBlue drains across the area
Pentre Meyrick, Graig Penllyn and Llangan are among the places around Penllyn that the same teams serve, together with much of The Vale of Glamorgan further out, throughout the CF postcode area. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Anywhere the car stands — a driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Penllyn, a rural village, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Penllyn?
Not one flat figure would be fair, since each job is different. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the car, because an open drive is simpler for a van to reach safely than a tight gap behind St. Tydfil's Church.
Before any quote, never afterwards, each enquiry from Penllyn opens with the same three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. Given those replies, the range narrows to one fixed figure.
Our price is quoted on the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance whilst we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
In Penllyn and still beside your car?
Then, do nothing — that is the most helpful step there is. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Penllyn or wherever in The Vale of Glamorgan.