Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pontyates
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your motor. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing happens till your motor pulls it through. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and carefully rinsed where your car sits around Pontyates. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Pontyates, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- Remove the keys, which prevents someone switching the electrics on.
- Put the hazards on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting SA15 5, or just the name of a street close by, and so call from the spot.
Never do these:
- Moving your vehicle even a short way is no reason to start the engine.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the instant the ignition goes on, and so leave it off.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way along Heol y Meinciau.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the verge.
Get the attendants to help you roll your car off the island if you are on a forecourt in Pontyates, whether it is the Asda or elsewhere. At home, the vehicle remains exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, where it treats the gas. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
It does not blend. After it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the very place the pickup draws from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Four Roads last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
After it is drawn in, the harm comes in two forms. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, attacking whatever it reaches until it's cleared from the system. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny channels. By daybreak, a car sitting around Pontyates with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it is just inside that tank, it doesn't. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Murco. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in your tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. It doesn't burn, and so it can't simply be run through. Whether your car is in Meinciau or the heart of Pontyates, turning it over "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush matters more. Why: it won't remain mixed, so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
As with petrol, there is good news. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Carmarthenshire your car is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Pontyates: how it ends up there
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills your car. A driver tips the bottle in outside their house, right off Heol Llanelli, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park outside Pontyates RFC.
It comes up most in a hire car, a brand-new car, a company car, or the other vehicle of a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles people use least. Wherever in Carmarthenshire, Pontyates included, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first response: leave it off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Pontyates?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through your filter, through the pipework, and — given any running — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is where it travels.
Maybe returning from Carway Welfare Park, or part way across Pontyates, your engine might run lumpy, smoke, lose power, light up your dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M4, under 10 miles from Pontyates, at the first junction and stop safely, not driving on.
Distance counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, and so driving towards Swansea, under 15 miles away, gives a much larger job than hopping across Pontyates to the car park by Gwendraeth Tenants Resource Centre. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has stopped, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Noticed quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Pontyates: what it takes
The vehicle stays put, whether that is a street beside Pontyates Welfare Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station around Pontyates, and our van comes to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if the engine has been run, since those replies settle this work.
Next, draining the tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is flushed all the way through because what remains won't wash out by itself. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming the system with fresh diesel comes last. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, at Kidwelly or on a drive around Pontyates. It is tested on fresh diesel to confirm it runs properly before we leave. Because the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. At the end, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Pontyates itself
Pontyates is a small village in Carmarthenshire, situated on the banks of a river at a low elevation of around 13 metres. Pontyates lies near the communities of Pont Henri, Carway, and Cynheidre, and is within commuting distance of Swansea, which is approximately 15 miles away. Pontyates has a population of around 581 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Pontyates is located in a rural area, with easy access to the surrounding countryside.
AdBlue drains across Pontyates and Carmarthenshire
Pont Henri, Carway and Cynheidre are among the places near Pontyates that the same teams reach, along with most of Carmarthenshire further out, over the SA postcode area. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Pontyates is a village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Pontyates
Because each callouts differ, a flat price would not be honest. Three things change the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether a van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind Nazareth Independant Chapel.
Ahead of a quote, not after, every enquiry from Pontyates opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. With them, the range narrows to a single fixed figure.
Before a van heads out, you are told our price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Check your insurance while we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Pontyates: still next to the vehicle?
Not touching the car is, right now, the best move you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether the engine ran is all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Carmarthenshire, Pontyates included.