Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Raglan
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. The trouble starts once it is sucked through the lines — it will not ignite, and it won't blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Raglan, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your motor has been run. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Raglan, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Things to do:
- Pocket the keys, which prevents anyone turning the power on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- Which product, and about how much amount? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting NP15 2, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Do not:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to move your car.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way along Usk Road.
- Emptying that tank on your own beside the road isn't worth trying.
Rolling the car off the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Raglan forecourt you are on, the Gulf or any other. At your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, where it treats the fumes. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It sinks, because it is denser than diesel, and settles down where the pickup takes its supply 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 Rhiw-las last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. 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 parts it reaches for as long as it remains there. Lines carrying AdBlue mean harm overnight for a car sitting around Raglan. Just in the tank, it stays the same. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Esso, and this problem is diluted fuel. No harm comes as long as it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only when your motor runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. It doesn't burn, so it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Treworgan Common or the middle of Raglan.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere around Monmouthshire your vehicle has stopped, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to empty.
Raglan: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually happens outside the house, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the filling station.
Usually, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent refills your car. Close to Fairfax View, someone tips a container in at home after work. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up the vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park outside The Ship Inn.
It occurs most in the vehicles people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it off: that is the first response to an identical mistake, anywhere in Raglan or the rest of Monmouthshire you are.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Raglan, and the motor started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. Your filter and lines have had it pulled along, and any running takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
You may notice the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Pant Wood or halfway across Raglan. Stop when safe. Switch off. Leave the vehicle off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Raglan lies under 15 miles from the M4; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and pull up safely rather than carrying on.
Distance matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue further in, and so heading for Newport, under 15 miles away, makes a far bigger job than crossing Raglan to the car park by Raglan Baptist Church. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once your engine has run, and we do all of it where your car has come to a stop. If it's caught quickly, long-term damage is very rare.
Raglan: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped in Raglan — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside Saint Cadoc — our van travels to the car. Which fluid was put in, roughly the quantity, and whether the engine has been run: we ask first, since those decide the work.
Right there, the tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away unaided, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts much more with urea than with petrol. Next, the filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. Then fresh diesel, then a check of the vehicle. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when your motor hasn't run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the last step. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, by Abergavenny or on a drive around Raglan. Our engineers confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before we go. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Raglan and where it is
Raglan is a village situated on the banks of a river in Monmouthshire, Wales, with an elevation of around 47 metres. Raglan lies approximately 13.7 miles from Newport and 118.3 miles from London, making it a relatively accessible rural community. Raglan has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Raglan is surrounded by smaller settlements, including Cuckoos Row, Wern-y-cwrt, and Twyn-y-Sheriff.
Raglan and Monmouthshire: AdBlue drains across the area
The teams that answer AdBlue jobs in Raglan also cover the places about it, Cuckoos Row, Wern-y-cwrt and Twyn-y-Sheriff among them, and most of Monmouthshire beyond, across the NP postcode area. Close to a border, or anywhere tricky to explain? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
No towing is needed. In Raglan, a village, a van that comes to you works: the vehicle is emptied on the spot, whether on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
Raglan: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one flat price would be honest, because every job differs. What changes the price is, firstly, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Raglan Castle.
Before a quote, not afterwards, each call from Raglan begins with the same three questions: the fuel, the amount, and if it ran. When they are answered, a range becomes one fixed number.
You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is on the way, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
Still next to the car around Raglan?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the best move there is. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Raglan or anywhere in Monmouthshire.