AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Rhiwinder? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Rhiwinder, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your motor has been run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Rhiwinder, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, take the keys out.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about what quantity, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting CF39 8, or whichever street is closest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring from wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to shift your vehicle.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the instant the ignition comes on, so keep the car off.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it is pointless.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch up Comin y Coed.
- No draining it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Moving your car off the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Rhiwinder forecourt you are on, the Gulf included. On that drive, the car stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays apart rather than blending — entirely unlike fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the very place the intake sucks from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Coedely last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
After it is drawn in, the harm comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny channels; and, since it attacks some metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. By daybreak, a vehicle parked in Rhiwinder with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it's just in the tank, it doesn't. And there's the water: it offers no protection to the components that rely on it most — the injection pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Texaco, and the problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is in the tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates back out — and the following fill won't clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Rhiwinder or out in Bryngolau, does more harm than nearly any other error.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits just inside your tank, the easiest section of the entire system to clear, anywhere your vehicle has stopped around Rhondda Cynon Taf.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Rhiwinder: how it ends up there
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and in dim light the two can look the same. No one means it. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, someone tops up your car. Near The Avenue, someone tips a bottle in on the drive after work. Else, after dark by the pub in the village, the vehicle gets refilled by someone using that flap for the first time.
It crops up the most in a rental, a new vehicle, a company vehicle, or the other car of a family with both fuels — the vehicles people know least. Wherever you're around Rhiwinder or the rest of Rhondda Cynon Taf, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Rhiwinder, and the motor started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Via the fuel filter, along the lines, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's where it travels.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any may show up, perhaps midway across Rhiwinder or coming back from Dai's Park. No starting it again to check: pull over once safe, then switch it off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M4, under 5 miles from Rhiwinder, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Rhiwinder to the car park by Capel Farm Community Centre is a very different job from a run towards Cardiff, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
There's more to flush once the engine has been run, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. Permanent damage is very rare when it is caught quickly.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Rhiwinder
Anywhere it has stopped in Rhiwinder — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a road beside Saint David's Church — the van travels to your car. What got in, about the quantity, and if your motor has turned over: we ask before all else, because those decide the work.
Then your tank is cleared where the vehicle stands, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed all the way through because residue will not wash away unaided. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, provided the motor hasn't run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. At that point our technicians start the car and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Porth or a driveway in Rhiwinder. Our engineers make sure it runs smoothly on clean diesel before leaving. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Rhiwinder and where it is
Rhiwinder is a small locality in Rhondda Cynon Taf, situated inland at an elevation of 162 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Rhiwinder lies approximately 12 miles north of Cardiff, within commuting distance of the city. Rhiwinder is surrounded by other local communities, including Thomastown, Tonyrefail, and Tyn-y-bryn, in the south Wales valleys.
Rhiwinder and Rhondda Cynon Taf: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the CF postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs in Rhiwinder reach most of Rhondda Cynon Taf too, Thomastown, Tonyrefail and Tyn-y-bryn among them. Near a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
Rhiwinder is a small village, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Rhiwinder: the cost of fixing it
Each job differs, and so no single price would be fair. What shifts the price is, first of all, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Coedely Community Centre.
With that in mind, every call from Rhiwinder opens by asking the same trio — what went in, how much, whether the engine ran — ahead of any quote. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
The price is quoted during the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy whilst we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Still next to the vehicle around Rhiwinder?
Then, the best thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Rhiwinder or anywhere within Rhondda Cynon Taf.