Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pontymister
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and your ignition too. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the fuel system pulls it in. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully flushed where your car stands around Pontymister. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Pontymister, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
Things to do:
- Pocket the keys, and that stops anyone switching the electrics on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting NP11 6, or whatever street lies nearest, and the van finds you directly — so call from wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your car: your engine remains off.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start your pump.
- Adding more diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Even a short way up Maryland Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Beside the road, do not attempt emptying it on your own.
The attendants on duty at any Pontymister forecourt — the Valero included — will usually lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. At your own drive, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. Kept in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the same place the intake draws from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Danygraig last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. 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 working on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. Pipes holding AdBlue spell harm by morning for a vehicle parked in Pontymister. Just in the tank, it stays stable. The water in it causes harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more significant than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Tesco. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's inside that tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable liquid. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits back out — and the following tankful won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Pontymister or out in Upper Ochrwyth, costs more than nearly any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever around Caerphilly the car has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest part of any fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Pontymister: how it ends up there
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent refills your car. Near Coronation Street, a driver pours a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills the car after dark, stopped in the car park outside Masons Arms.
The least familiar cars get it the most — rentals, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the other vehicle of a home with one of each fuels. An identical mistake, same first response — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be around Pontymister or the rest of Caerphilly.
Pontymister: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. It has been drawn through the fuel filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Ty-Isaf Common or halfway across Pontymister. No restarting to check: stop when it is safe, then turn it off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the M4, under 3 miles from Pontymister, by the next junction and park somewhere safe, not driving on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Pontymister to the car park by Risca Youth Centre is a very different job from a run towards Newport, under 5 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the engine has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. Permanent damage is very rare if it's noticed early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Pontymister?
A road by Ty Isaf Baptist Church, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere the car has come to rest around Pontymister, our engineers travel to it. Three replies shape the job, so before anything else we ask which fluid got in, roughly what quantity, and if the engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one after the tank is drained, right there. A careful flush counts far more with AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains will not clear out on its own. A test of your vehicle comes at the end, after fresh diesel goes in and your filter is flushed or, where necessary, replaced. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when the engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The last step is to prime your system on new diesel. Whether it is a parking space by Risca & Pontymister or a driveway in Pontymister, that is where we start the engine and you set off. Before leaving, our technicians check it is running correctly with new diesel in. Since the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Pontymister and where it is
Pontymister is a suburban area in Caerphilly, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 47 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Pontymister lies close to the city of Newport, which is approximately 4.3 miles away, and is near other local places such as Lower Ochrwyth and Ty-Sign. Pontymister has a population of around 5333 people and is located near the Welsh countryside. Pontymister is also within commuting distance to major cities, with London being around 127.6 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Caerphilly, Pontymister included
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs around Pontymister also cover the spots about it, Lower Ochrwyth, Ty-Sign and Penrhiw among them, and most of Caerphilly beyond, across the NP postcode area. Ring and check instead of guessing when you are by a border, or somewhere awkward to explain.
Anywhere the vehicle sits — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits Pontymister, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Pontymister: the cost of fixing it
Each job is different, so not one single quote would be fair. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of the car, since an open driveway is simpler for our van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Risca War Memorial.
With that in mind, every enquiry from Pontymister opens by asking the identical trio — what went in, what quantity, whether it ran — ahead of any figure. Once those are known, a range turns into one firm number.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
In Pontymister and still beside the vehicle?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Pontymister or anywhere within Caerphilly, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran.