Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Solva
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. The harm starts once it's pulled through your lines — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully cleaned where your car stands around Solva. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Solva
To do:
- Remove the keys, which prevents anyone turning the power on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and about how much amount? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and we can know.
- Tell us a postcode starting SA62 6, or whatever street lies nearest, and our van finds you directly — so ring from wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's pointless.
- Do not drive the car anywhere, not even a short way up High Street.
- By the road, don't attempt emptying it yourself.
The attendants on duty at any Solva forecourt — the Texaco among them — will normally help pushing it clear if you ask. On the drive, the car stays just as it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, where it cleans the gas. Nothing inside an injection pump is made for this fluid — and no part of it was meant to travel that way.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays apart rather than blending — entirely different from fuel. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and settles down where the intake takes its supply from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it waits underneath your diesel, which is how a vehicle filled in Nine Wells yesterday and not started stays the straightforward case, provided nobody touches your key.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny channels; meanwhile, since it eats at some metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays in there. A car left standing in Solva with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing past them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more major than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the whole problem. Damage just comes from driving on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting inside your tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Crystals and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue separates back from the diesel, and so watering it won't help. Hence the flush matters more, and trying the engine "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Middle Mill or the heart of Solva equally.
The same good news holds as with petrol. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Pembrokeshire the car is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Solva: how it ends up there
Many cars put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, now and then under one flap, and after dark the two may appear identical. Nobody means it. Usually it is never the filling station: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills the car. A driver pours the bottle in outside their house, right off A487, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap tops up the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park outside The Harbour Inn.
Rented vehicles, new vehicles, fleet vehicles, or the second vehicle in a home with one of each: the least known vehicles see it the most. Wherever in Pembrokeshire, Solva as well, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
Solva: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and some running takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may appear, maybe midway across Solva or returning from St David's Airfield. Once you safely can, stop then switch it off — without restarting to see. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M4, under 50 miles from Solva, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Hopping across Solva to the car park by Solva Gribbin Fort is one matter; driving for St Davids, under 3 miles away, is something else, since each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after your engine has been run. Lasting damage is very unusual when it is caught quickly.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Solva
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Solva: a side street close to Oriel Fach, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid was put in, about the quantity, and if the engine has turned over: our engineers check first, because those decide the job.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when the tank is emptied, on the spot. The fuel system is flushed 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 flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then your car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once we get there, provided your motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Last, your system is bled with new diesel. At that point we start it and you head off, whether from a parking space by Haverfordwest or a drive around Solva. Our technicians confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before leaving. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never has to go to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Solva itself
Solva is a coastal village in Pembrokeshire, situated near St Davids and overlooking the Irish Sea. Solva sits at an elevation of around 52 metres, with the village divided into Upper and Lower Solva. Solva has a population of approximately 654 people, living in predominantly semi-detached housing. Solva is close to other nearby places, including Whitchurch.
Solva and Pembrokeshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs around Solva are passed to vans that serve the places around it — Upper Solva, Lower Solva plus Whitchurch — and much of Pembrokeshire further out, throughout SA postcodes. Near a border, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking beats assuming, and so ring.
No towing is needed. In Solva, a coastal village, a mobile service fits: your car is emptied where it stands, be it on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
Solva: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no fair single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. Three things shift the cost: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind Enclosure.
That's why each call from Solva starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. With them, the range narrows to a single firm figure.
Before anyone sets off, you are told our quote by phone. And you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Check your insurance whilst we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Still alongside your car in Solva?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the most useful thing you can do. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Solva or anywhere within Pembrokeshire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran.