Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ponciau
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave the motor off and leave your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. As it is water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; trouble just comes once your pump starts drawing it. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully purged where the car sits in Ponciau. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Ponciau
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Which product, and roughly how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and we can know.
- The van locates you fastest with a postcode starting LL14 1, or just the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the spot.
Not to do:
- Moving your vehicle just a short way is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Many diesels run their fuel pump the moment your ignition goes on, and so keep the car off.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance up Walkers Lane is too far to drive the car.
- Do not try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move your vehicle away from the pumps if you're on a forecourt in Ponciau, whether it is the BP or elsewhere. On that drive, your car remains exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. From a dedicated tank it is fed directly to the 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.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. A car topped up on a drive in Johnstown overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though when your motor runs, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
After it's pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filters and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it attacks certain metals, each part it touches suffers for as long as it stays in there. A motor left sitting around Ponciau with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector need diesel running through them, so the water content damages them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
An issue of thin fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol from the Esso. Mixed into the diesel and sitting still, it's harmless for now; using your motor is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates again — and the following fill won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Ponciau or out in Pentre Bychan, does more harm than nearly any other error.
As with petrol, there is good news. Not run? Then the AdBlue waits just inside your tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to empty, anywhere your car has stopped in Wrexham.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Ponciau?
Many motors put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap, and in dim light the two may look the same. No one means it. A bottle picked up when heading home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. The top-up gets hurried outside the local primary school, after the dash lit up with a warning while the kids were taken off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Castle Street. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside Colliers Arms, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
The least known vehicles get it most — rentals, brand-new ones, company cars, and the other car of a home with both fuels. Same mistake, an identical first step — keep it switched off — wherever you are around Ponciau or the rest of Wrexham.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Ponciau?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It's been sucked through the filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Watch for rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Ponciau Banks, perhaps, or part way across Ponciau. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M53, under 25 miles from Ponciau, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Hopping across Ponciau to the car park by Bethel is one matter; driving for Wrexham, under 5 miles away, is something else, because every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once your engine has been started, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. Permanent damage is very rare when it's caught quickly.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Ponciau
Wherever it has stopped in Ponciau — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a street beside Mynydd Seion — our van comes to the car. The job depends on three answers, and our engineers get before all else — what went in, the quantity, and whether your engine has run.
Then your tank is drained where the vehicle waits, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than with petrol, since residue won't wash away by itself. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when your motor has not run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Lastly, your system is primed with new diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, outside Ruabon or on a driveway around Ponciau. It's tested on new diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before our technicians head off. Since the job is done in full where your car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Ponciau and where it is
Ponciau is a suburban area located near Wrexham in northeast Wales, sitting at an elevation of 155 metres above sea level. Ponciau is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is situated close to nearby communities such as Rhosllanerchrugog and Pant. Ponciau is a relatively small but distinct residential community on the outskirts of Wrexham, with the city centre just 3.3 miles away.
Ponciau and Wrexham: AdBlue drains across the area
Rhosllanerchrugog, Rhosllannerchrugog and Pant are among the towns near Ponciau that the same vans reach, along with much of Wrexham beyond, over the LL postcode area. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
No moving is needed. In Ponciau, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you works: your car is drained on the spot, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Ponciau: the cost of fixing it
No single figure could be honest, since every job is different. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Seion.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, and if it ran: every Ponciau call opens by asking exactly that, ahead of a figure, not afterwards. When those are known, a range turns into one firm number.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
In Ponciau and still alongside the car?
Not touching the car is, then, the best thing you can do. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Ponciau or wherever within Wrexham.