AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Port Talbot? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and your ignition too. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Being water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage only starts when the pump begins pulling it. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully purged where the vehicle sits in Port Talbot. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Port Talbot, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Things to do:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, take the keys out.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the quantity, so don't throw it away.
- Give us a postcode starting SA13 1, or whatever street is closest, and the van reaches you directly — so call wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to reposition your car.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so keep the car off.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, so it is wasted.
- Keep it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Forge Road.
- Emptying that tank on your own by the road is not worth trying.
The attendants on duty at any Port Talbot filling station — the Tesco included — will normally help pushing it clear if you ask. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. Kept in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
It does not combine. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the very place the pickup sucks from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Pen-y-cae 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 drawn it in.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow passages; and, since it eats at some metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell harm by morning for a car parked in Port Talbot. Just inside that tank, it stays the same. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector need diesel flowing through them, and so the water content harms them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the another forecourt nearby, and the issue is thinned fuel. Blended into your diesel and left unused, it's no threat at that stage; using your engine is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, because it does not burn. Crystals and corrosion stay through the next tankful, and AdBlue splits back from your diesel, and so thinning it won't work. Hence the flush counts more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Aberavon or the centre of Port Talbot alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue sits just inside that tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to empty, wherever the vehicle has come to rest in Neath Port Talbot.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Port Talbot?
Plenty of cars put the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap, and after dark the two can appear identical. No one intends it. Usually it's never the forecourt: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and pours it in outside the house.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside the local primary school the refill is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Station Road. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at Forge Tavern, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least known cars see it the most — rentals, new cars, fleet ones, and the spare vehicle of a family with one of each fuels. Wherever you're in Port Talbot or the remainder of Neath Port Talbot, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Port Talbot?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. Through the filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — into the injection pump and each injector: that's how far it has gone.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a stall — returning from Aberavon Park, say, or part way across Port Talbot. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M4, under a mile from Port Talbot, by the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue further in. That is why crossing Port Talbot to park near Eglwys Carmel and a drive of under 10 miles towards Swansea are very different jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once the engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. Caught quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Port Talbot?
A street beside Eglwys Bedyddwyr Glan yr Afon, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your vehicle has come to rest around Port Talbot, our technicians travel to it. What went in, about how much, and if the motor has turned over: our technicians ask first, since those shape the job.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together when that tank is emptied, on the spot. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains will not wash out by itself. Clean diesel goes in after your filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
The last step is to bleed your system on clean diesel. You head off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway in Port Talbot or in a bay by Port Talbot Parkway. Our engineers check it runs properly on fresh diesel before we go. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Port Talbot, briefly
Port Talbot is a coastal town in south Wales, situated near the mouth of the Afan River and looking out over Swansea Bay. Port Talbot has a mix of industrial and residential areas, with terraced housing being a predominant feature of the town. Port Talbot is close to several nearby villages, including Velindre and Lletyharri, and is within commuting distance of Swansea, the nearest city. Port Talbot sits at a relatively low elevation of around 12 metres above sea level, making it a coastal lowland town.
AdBlue drains across Port Talbot and Neath Port Talbot
Velindre, Lletyharri and Corlannau are among the places near Port Talbot that the same vans reach, together with most of Neath Port Talbot beyond, over the SA postcode area. Assuming won't help by a county line or anywhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
A mobile service suits Port Talbot, a coastal town: there's no need to bring the car to us, since our technicians drain it on the spot, on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
Port Talbot: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, so not one single price is fair. Three things shift 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 a van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind Dementia Hwb.
For that reason, every call from Port Talbot begins by asking the same trio — what was put in, how much, whether it ran — ahead of a figure. When those are known, a range turns into one firm figure.
Before a van sets off, you hear the quote by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Still alongside the vehicle in Port Talbot?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Port Talbot or wherever within Neath Port Talbot.