Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Penmaenmawr
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and your ignition as well. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the system draws it in. In Penmaenmawr, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Penmaenmawr: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting LL34 6, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Don't:
- Shifting your vehicle even a few yards is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Switching the key to ignition alone sets the pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short stretch up Rhesdai Brynmor is too far to drive the car.
- Beside the road, don't try draining it yourself.
On a forecourt around Penmaenmawr, whether it is the Shell or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll your car clear of the petrol pump. On the drive, the vehicle stays just as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to treat the fumes. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Capelulo overnight and has not been started since. The liquid sits at the foot of your tank, untouched — but it would be first through once your motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny channels; and, since it attacks certain metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains inside. A car left sitting around Penmaenmawr with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, and that is a second kind of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more serious than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Tesco, and the issue is thinned fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is inside the tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay through the following fill, and AdBlue separates back from your diesel, and so thinning it won't work. That is why the flush counts more, and turning your key "to see" costs more here than almost any other slip — in Garizim or the centre of Penmaenmawr equally.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere around Conwy your vehicle sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Penmaenmawr: how it ends up there
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue cap beside the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap, and in dim light the two can appear the same. No one intends it. A container bought when driving home and poured in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual story.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. The refill is rushed outside the local primary school, because your dash lit up with a warning as the kids were taken in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Ffordd Bangor. Another pattern: darkness, the car park outside Bron Eryri Hotel, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least familiar vehicles see it the most — rentals, new ones, company cars, and the other vehicle of a family with both fuel types. Same mistake, an identical first step — leave it switched off — wherever you happen to be around Penmaenmawr or the rest of Conwy.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Penmaenmawr?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. The fuel filter and lines have had it pulled along, and some running time takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
You may see the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Garden for the Blind or halfway across Penmaenmawr. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off rather than testing it again. Every start pulls more of it through.
On the Moreton Spur, under 50 miles from Penmaenmawr, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why crossing Penmaenmawr to park beside The Jubilee Barometer and a drive of under 10 miles towards Bangor are such separate jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to clean out once the motor has run, and we do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. Lasting damage is very unusual if it's spotted early.
Penmaenmawr: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
The vehicle remains put, whether that's a street beside Gladstone Memorial, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt in Penmaenmawr, and our van comes to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether the engine has run, since those answers determine the work.
Then your tank is emptied where the car sits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. After that, the filter: flushed, or changed if it must be. After that fresh diesel, then a test of your vehicle. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we turn up, if the engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Priming the system with fresh diesel comes at the end. At that point our technicians start the car and you set off, whether from a parking bay outside the nearest station or a driveway in Penmaenmawr. It is checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before our technicians go. We do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to go to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Penmaenmawr itself
Penmaenmawr is a coastal town in Conwy, Wales, situated on the north Wales coast at an elevation of 41 metres. Penmaenmawr has a mix of terraced housing and is located near the towns of Penmaenan, Dwygyfylchi, and St Gwynans. Penmaenmawr is close to Bangor, the nearest city, which is approximately 9 miles away. Penmaenmawr is a significant distance from London, at around 201 miles.
AdBlue drains across Conwy, Penmaenmawr included
Our vans that answer AdBlue calls around Penmaenmawr also cover the places around it, Penmaenan, Dwygyfylchi and St Gwynans among them, and most of Conwy beyond, across the LL postcode area. Near a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Checking beats assuming, so ring.
No moving is needed. In Penmaenmawr, a coastal town, a mobile service works: the car is emptied where it stands, be it in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Penmaenmawr: the cost of fixing it
Every job is different, so no fixed price would be honest. Three things change the cost: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight gap behind Penmaenmawr Library.
With that in mind, every enquiry from Penmaenmawr opens with the same trio — which fluid got in, how much, whether the engine ran — ahead of any figure. Those replies shrink a range right down to one number.
Before anyone sets off, you are told our price on the phone. And payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
In Penmaenmawr and still next to the car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if it ran are all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Conwy, Penmaenmawr too.