Six Bells: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the engine. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. In Six Bells, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Six Bells, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Things to do:
- Remove your keys, which stops anyone switching the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which fluid, and about what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Our van locates you quickest with a postcode starting NP13 2, or just the name of a street close by, so phone from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your vehicle: your motor remains off.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself sets your pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way along Eastville Road.
- Emptying your tank on your own beside the road is not worth trying.
Rolling your vehicle off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Six Bells forecourt you're on, the Tesco or any other. At your own drive, don't move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. Kept in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. No part in a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and none of that was intended to travel that way.
It doesn't blend. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the same spot the pickup draws from. A car filled on a driveway in St Illtyd overnight and not started since counts as the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though once your motor turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filters and tiny channels; and, because it attacks certain metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. Pipes holding AdBlue spell damage by morning for a car parked in Six Bells. Only in that tank, it stays stable. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel running past them, so the water content damages them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Texaco and you have a fault of thin fuel. Damage just comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside your tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be watered down, because it splits again — and the next fill won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Six Bells or out in Blaenau Gwent, costs more than almost any other slip.
As with petrol, there's good news. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere around Blaenau Gwent your vehicle has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Six Bells?
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap — can look the same. Nobody means it; plenty of designs allow it. It mostly happens at home, from a bottle bought en route home, not at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. The refill gets hurried outside the local primary school, because your dash lit up with a warning while the kids were taken off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Alexandra Road. Else, after dark outside Mitre Inn, the car gets refilled by someone using that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere across Blaenau Gwent, Six Bells included, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
Six Bells: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and any running carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Perhaps returning from Six Bells Park, or part way across Six Bells, your motor may go lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or cut out. Once safe, pull over and switch everything off — with no restarting to test. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M4, under 10 miles from Six Bells, at the first junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Hopping across Six Bells to the car park by Old Miners Memorial is one matter; heading towards Newport, under 15 miles away, is something else, because each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once your engine has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. Caught soon, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Six Bells
Anywhere it has stopped around Six Bells — a filling station, a layby, a drive, a road beside Six Bells Community Centre — our van travels to the vehicle. Which fluid went in, about the quantity, and if your motor has turned over: we check before all else, because those decide the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one when your tank is drained, right there. Your system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no issue, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Clean diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that is the final step. After that our technicians start the engine and you head off, whether from a parking bay by Llanhilleth or a driveway in Six Bells. Our technicians check it runs correctly on new diesel before leaving. We do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Six Bells, for a moment
Six Bells is a suburban area in Blaenau Gwent, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 196 metres. Six Bells is located near the communities of Penrhiwgarreg, Pant y Pwdyn, and Abertillery, and is approximately 10.8 miles from Newport. Six Bells has a population of around 2263 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing.
AdBlue drains around Six Bells and across Blaenau Gwent
The vans that answer AdBlue jobs around Six Bells also cover the locations around it, Penrhiwgarreg, Pant y Pwdyn and Abertillery among them, and most of Blaenau Gwent beyond, across the NP postcode area. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A mobile service fits Six Bells, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring the car to us, since we drain it on the spot, in a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Six Bells
Each job is different, and so not one fixed price is honest. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Sixbells Guardian.
With that in mind, each call from Six Bells opens with the same trio — what got in, how much, if it ran — before any quote. When those are answered, a range becomes one fixed figure.
The quote is given during the call, before a van sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Look at your policy while we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Alongside your car in Six Bells, still?
Then, do nothing — that's the most helpful move available. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Six Bells or wherever in Blaenau Gwent.