Pontymoel: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. The harm begins once it's sucked through your lines — it won't ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. Caught before the engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Pontymoel. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Pontymoel: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a NP4 5 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your car: the engine stays off.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Cwmynyscoy Roundabout.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the roadside.
The attendants on duty at any Pontymoel filling station — the Esso included — will normally lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. At your own drive, do not move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. Kept in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to treat the fumes. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same spot the pickup draws from. A motor topped up on a driveway in Pontypool overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but once your engine runs, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
After it is drawn in, the damage takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny channels; meanwhile, since it attacks some metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. Overnight, a car parked around Pontymoel with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it's just inside that tank, nothing changes. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water offers none of that, and that is a separate form of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Tesco's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that is the whole fault. Mixed through your diesel and sitting unused, it is harmless at that stage; running the motor is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It can't simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. Deposits and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue separates again from the diesel, so watering it won't help. Hence the flush counts so much, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other mistake — in Griffithstown or the heart of Pontymoel alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits just inside your tank, the easiest section of the entire system to clear, anywhere the vehicle has come to rest in Torfaen.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Pontymoel: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it's never the forecourt: someone picks up a container heading home and tips it in at home.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent refills your car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Maesderwen Crescent. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up your car in dim light, parked in the car park outside The Unicorn.
It happens most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are around Pontymoel or the remainder of Torfaen, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Pontymoel?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Via your filter, along the lines, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Pontypool Park, say, or part way across Pontymoel. When you safely can, pull over and switch everything off — without turning it on again to see. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M4, under 10 miles from Pontymoel, by the first junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
Distance counts: every mile carries the AdBlue further into the system, so driving for Newport, under 10 miles away, gives a far larger job than crossing Pontymoel to the car park by Pontymoile Undenominational Christian Mission. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has ended up, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage when it's noticed quickly.
Pontymoel: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A street by Canolfan Byw'n Egnïol Pont-y-pŵl, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere your vehicle has stopped in Pontymoel, our technicians travel to it. What got in, about how much, and whether the motor has turned over: we ask before all else, since those decide the work.
Then that tank is drained where your car sits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is flushed right through since what remains will not wash away by itself. Testing your car comes last, after clean diesel is added and your filter is flushed or, if necessary, replaced. Engine not run? Then count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that is the last step. At that point our engineers fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Pontypool and New Inn or a driveway around Pontymoel. The test before our technicians go is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Because the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Pontymoel, for a moment
Pontymoel is a suburban area in Torfaen, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 132 metres. Pontymoel lies near the cities of Newport and the surrounding communities of Trosnant, Cwm Fields, and Cwmynyscoy. Pontymoel is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is located approximately 7.6 miles from Newport. Pontymoel is part of the wider urban area of south Wales, within commuting distance of major cities.
Pontymoel and Torfaen: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the NP postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs around Pontymoel serve much of Torfaen as well, Trosnant, Cwm Fields and Cwmynyscoy included. Near a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Asking is better than guessing, so phone.
Wherever your car stands — a drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Pontymoel, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Pontymoel: the cost of fixing it
Because the callouts vary, a flat figure would not be honest. What changes the cost is, first, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Parc Pont-y-pŵl.
Before any quote, not afterwards, each enquiry from Pontymoel begins with three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether it ran. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, it is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Still next to the car in Pontymoel?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Pontymoel or wherever in Torfaen.