AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Rhyd-y-car? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep your motor off then leave your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Being water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; trouble just starts once the pump starts pulling it. In Rhyd-y-car, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Rhyd-y-car: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Pocket your keys, and that stops anyone switching the power on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting CF48 1, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Never:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Leave the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance along A4102.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
Moving the vehicle off the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Rhyd-y-car forecourt you are on, the Applegreen included. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. No part in an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of it was intended to travel through one.
It doesn't blend. Once it is poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A car topped up on a driveway in Twynyrodyn yesterday evening and not started since is the simple one. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though once the motor runs, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny channels and block filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it's flushed out. A car left standing around Rhyd-y-car with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector depend on diesel running through them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Esso's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that's the main fault. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's inside that tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. It does not burn, so it cannot just be run through. Whether the vehicle sits in Glebeland or the heart of Rhyd-y-car, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, and so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion survive the following fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Merthyr Tydfil the vehicle is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Rhyd-y-car
Plenty of motors place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap, and after dark the two may appear the same. Nobody means it. A bottle picked up while heading home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical route.
Usually, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone tops up the vehicle. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway near Cae'r Wern. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside King Brychan, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a fleet car, or the spare car of a home with both fuel types — the cars drivers know least. Leave it off: that is the first step to the same mistake, anywhere in Rhyd-y-car or the remainder of Merthyr Tydfil you are.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Rhyd-y-car, and your engine started?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Through the filter, along the lines, and — given any running — on to the injection pump and every injector: that is where it travels.
Perhaps returning from The Wern, or midway across Rhyd-y-car, the engine may go rough, smoke, lose power, flash the dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M4, under 25 miles from Rhyd-y-car, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Rhyd-y-car to the car park by Merthyr Tydfil Indoor Bowls Club is a very different job from a run towards Newport, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage when it's caught soon.
Rhyd-y-car: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Anywhere it has come to rest in Rhyd-y-car — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a street beside Merthyr Tydfil Leisure Centre — the van travels to the car. Which fluid got in, roughly the quantity, and if your motor has been run: our technicians ask first, since those shape the job.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave as one after your tank is emptied, right there. A careful flush counts far more after AdBlue than with petrol, since residue will not clear out by itself. Clean diesel goes in once the filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then the car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, provided your engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Last, your system is bled with new diesel. You set off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway in Rhyd-y-car or in a space by Merthyr Tydfil. Before we leave, our technicians make sure it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. No garage is required at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. At the end, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Rhyd-y-car
Rhyd-y-car is a suburban area in Merthyr Tydfil, situated near the river and surrounded by nearby places such as Cae-draw and Thomas Town. Rhyd-y-car has a population of approximately 2826 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Rhyd-y-car sits at an elevation of 170 metres, with the nearest city being Newport, located 19.5 miles away. Rhyd-y-car is part of the wider Merthyr Tydfil area, which is located 140.4 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Rhyd-y-car and Merthyr Tydfil
AdBlue jobs around Rhyd-y-car go to vans that cover the places around it — Cae-draw, Thomas Town plus Merthyr Tydfil — and much of Merthyr Tydfil further out, throughout CF postcodes. Phone and ask rather than guess when you are close to a county line, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
Rhyd-y-car is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
Rhyd-y-car: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one flat figure could be honest, because every job differs. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Vue Merthyr Tydfil.
For that in mind, every enquiry from Rhyd-y-car begins by asking the identical trio — what went in, how much, whether it ran — before any figure. With them, the range narrows to one fixed figure.
You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is on the way, check your insurance: many include misfuelling.
In Rhyd-y-car and still beside the car?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether it ran is everything our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Merthyr Tydfil, Rhyd-y-car too.