Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Price Town
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your engine off then keep the ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Price Town, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your engine has run. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Price Town, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly how much, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting CF32 7, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to shift your vehicle.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't thin it.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way up John Street.
- Emptying the tank on your own by the road is not worth trying.
At a forecourt in Price Town, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or another one, ask the staff to help you push your car away from the pump. At home, the vehicle stays exactly as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a dedicated reservoir it goes directly to the exhaust, cleaning what your engine emits. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps apart rather than blending — quite unlike fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and pools underneath it — the same place the pickup sucks from. When your system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it waits underneath your diesel, and that is how a car topped up in Pontycymer yesterday and not started remains the straightforward one, as long as nobody turns the key.
Once it is sucked in, the damage takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny channels; meanwhile, since it attacks certain metals, each part it touches suffers for as long as it remains in there. Pipes holding AdBlue mean damage by morning for a car sitting in Price Town. Only in your tank, it stays the same. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Texaco and you have a fault of thin fuel. Blended through the diesel and sitting still, it is harmless for now; running the motor is the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether the car sits in Blaengarw or the heart of Price Town, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other error, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever in Bridgend the car sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Price Town?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors waits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. The top-up gets hurried outside the local primary school, because the dash lit up with a warning while the kids were dropped off. Close to Ogwy Street, someone tips a container in at home in the evening. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your car in dim light, stopped in the car park by The Blaenogwr.
The least familiar vehicles see it most — rentals, brand-new ones, company ones, and the spare vehicle in a family with one of each fuel types. Anywhere around Bridgend, Price Town as well, the slip does not change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Price Town?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Given any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed through the fuel filter and pipework.
Maybe returning from Aber Field, or part way across Price Town, your motor may run rough, smoke, drop power, flash your dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
On the M4, under 10 miles from Price Town, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Price Town to the car park by Calvary Baptist Chapel is a very different job from a run towards Swansea, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been started, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage when it is spotted early.
Price Town: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Anywhere it has come to rest around Price Town — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a road beside Carn-yr-hyrddod — the van comes to your vehicle. The work depends on three replies, and our engineers get before all else — what went in, the amount, and whether your motor has run.
Then the tank is cleared where the vehicle sits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Next, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed if it must be. Then clean diesel, and then a test of the vehicle. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, if your motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that's the last step. At that point we start the engine and you drive off, whether from a parking space at Ton Pentre or a driveway in Price Town. Before we go, we check it is running properly with clean diesel in. Since the job is done in full where the car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Price Town, briefly
Price Town is a village in Bridgend, situated on the riverside with a mix of terraced housing and surrounded by nearby places like Nant-y-moel and Ogmore Vale. Price Town sits at an elevation of 194 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside. Price Town is located near the city of Swansea, which is approximately 17 miles away, and is part of a network of villages in the area including Wyndham.
Price Town and Bridgend: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs in Price Town go to vans that cover the towns around it — Nant-y-moel, Wyndham as well as Ogmore Vale — and most of Bridgend beyond, throughout CF postcodes. Near a boundary, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Asking is better than assuming, so ring.
A mobile service suits Price Town, a village: you have no need to bring the vehicle to us, because our technicians drain it there, in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Price Town
Every job is different, and so not one fixed quote is fair. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Bwlch Mountain.
What got in, what quantity, plus whether the engine ran: each Price Town enquiry begins with exactly that, ahead of any quote, never after. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Before anyone sets off, you are told the price on the phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Still next to your car in Price Town?
Then, the best thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Price Town or anywhere in Bridgend.