Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Rhiwbryfdir
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm starts until your engine pulls it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Rhiwbryfdir, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the motor has run. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps right now, Rhiwbryfdir: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, take your keys away.
- Put your hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- Which product, and about how much quantity? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians can know.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting LL41 3, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the car.
Do not do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your car: your engine stays off.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance along Ffordd Glanypwll.
- No draining it yourself, either, at the verge.
The staff working at any Rhiwbryfdir forecourt — the the nearest petrol station included — will usually lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. On your own driveway, don't move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the very place the intake sucks from. Simplest of all: one that had AdBlue in Trefeini overnight and has not been started since. The liquid waits at the base of that tank, untouched — though it would be first through if your engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
Once it's pulled in, the harm takes two forms. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it's flushed out. By daybreak, a car sitting in Rhiwbryfdir with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it is only inside that tank, it doesn't. The water in it causes harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's in that tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, so it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits again — and the following fill will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Rhiwbryfdir or out in Maen-Offeren, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere around Gwynedd the car has stopped, an unrun engine means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Rhiwbryfdir
Many motors place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and in dim light the two may appear identical. Nobody means it. Usually it's not the filling station: a driver picks up a container driving home and tips it in at home.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside the local primary school. Near North Western Road, someone pours a container in at home after work. Else, after dark by King's Head, the vehicle is topped up by a driver using that flap the first time.
It takes place most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are around Rhiwbryfdir or the remainder of Gwynedd, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Rhiwbryfdir, and your engine started?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been drawn through the fuel filter and the lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Perhaps returning from Oakeley Square, or part way across Rhiwbryfdir, the engine might run lumpy, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or cut out. No restarting to test: stop once it is safe, then switch everything off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Rhiwbryfdir sits under 50 miles from the Moreton Spur; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Mileage counts: every mile carries the AdBlue further in, so heading towards Bangor, under 25 miles away, gives a much larger job than crossing Rhiwbryfdir to the car park by Clwb Rygbi. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has stopped, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Spotted soon, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
Rhiwbryfdir: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Rhiwbryfdir: a side street close to Eglwys Dewi Sant, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies decide the job, and so before anything else we ask what got in, roughly what quantity, plus if the engine has run.
Then that tank is emptied where the car waits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because what remains won't wash out unaided. After that, the fuel filter: flushed, or replaced when it must be. Then clean diesel, and then a check of your car. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where the motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Bleeding the fuel system with clean diesel comes at the end. You head off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway in Rhiwbryfdir or in a bay outside Blaenau Ffestiniog. It is checked on clean diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before our engineers head off. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Rhiwbryfdir, for a moment
Rhiwbryfdir is a suburban area in Gwynedd, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 206 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Rhiwbryfdir lies near the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog and the villages of Glanypwll and Oakeley Square, and is approximately 17.7 miles from Bangor. Rhiwbryfdir is a relatively small community, with a population of around 1510 people, and is located in a scenic area of northwest Wales.
AdBlue drains across Rhiwbryfdir and Gwynedd
Our teams that answer AdBlue calls around Rhiwbryfdir also cover the spots around it, Glanypwll, Oakeley Square and Blaenau Ffestiniog among them, and most of Gwynedd beyond, across the LL postcode area. Assuming won't help by a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
A mobile service fits Rhiwbryfdir, a residential suburb: you have no need to take the vehicle to us, since our engineers drain it there, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Rhiwbryfdir: the cost of fixing it
Because the jobs differ, a single price would not be honest. Three things change the cost: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight gap behind St. David's Church Hall.
That is why every call from Rhiwbryfdir starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it has run. Given them, the range shrinks to a single firm figure.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Still beside your car in Rhiwbryfdir?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Rhiwbryfdir or wherever in Gwynedd.