Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Southgate
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave your engine off and leave your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Southgate, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the motor has been run. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Southgate: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Give us a postcode starting SY23 1, or whatever street is nearest, and the van finds you straight — so call from wherever you stand.
Not to do:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Many diesels run their pump the moment the ignition comes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way down Tyn-Y-Fron Lane.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself at the kerbside.
Rolling your vehicle away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Southgate forecourt you're on, the Morrisons included. At your own drive, don't touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, where it treats the fumes. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps apart instead of blending — quite unlike fuel. The intake takes fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Llanbadarn Fawr last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny channels; and, since it eats at certain metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays in there. A vehicle left standing around Southgate with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. And there is the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger problem?
Petrol put into a diesel on Texaco's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that's the whole fault. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and left in that tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Whether the car is in Pwllhobi or the heart of Southgate, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other error, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the next fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Ceredigion the vehicle is standing.
Southgate: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars sits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle picked up while driving home and poured in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical route.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside the local primary school. Close to Penparcau Road, a driver pours a bottle in on that drive after work. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Starling Cloud, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least familiar cars get it most — hire cars, brand-new cars, company cars, and the other vehicle of a family with one of each fuel types. Keep it switched off: that is the first response to an identical slip, wherever in Southgate or the rest of Ceredigion you are.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Southgate?
If so, 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 each injector: that is where it has gone.
You may notice the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Blaendolau Recreation Ground or halfway across Southgate. Once you safely can, stop and turn everything off — without turning it on again to see. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M4, under 50 miles from Southgate, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere sensible is where to stop — not driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Southgate to the car park by St Anne's is a very different job from a run towards Swansea, over 50 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where your car has ended up, and once the engine has run there is more of it. When it's spotted early, permanent damage is very uncommon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Southgate
The car remains put, whether that's a road beside Welsh Martyrs Catholic Church, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station in Southgate, and the van travels to it. Which fluid got in, roughly how much, and if your motor has been run: we check first, because those shape the work.
Next, draining that tank right there removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through because residue will not flush away by itself. Testing the vehicle comes last, once fresh diesel is added and the fuel filter is flushed or, where needed, replaced. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to bleed the system on clean diesel. After that we start the car and you set off, whether from a parking space by Aberystwyth or a drive in Southgate. We make sure it runs correctly on fresh diesel before we go. Because the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a garage never comes into it. At the end, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Southgate itself
Southgate is a coastal suburban area in Ceredigion, situated near the communities of Penparcau and Caeffynnon. Southgate sits at an elevation of 49 metres, looking out towards the sea. Southgate has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being particularly prevalent in the area. Southgate is located near the village of Rhydyfelin, and is within commuting distance of Swansea, the nearest city.
Southgate and Ceredigion: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs around Southgate are passed to teams that serve the places around it — Penparcau, Caeffynnon plus Rhydyfelin — and much of Ceredigion further out, across SY postcodes. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A mobile service fits Southgate, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring your vehicle to us, because our engineers empty it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
Southgate: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single price, since the jobs are not the same. Three things move the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight spot behind Yr Hwb - The Hub.
Before any figure, not after, every enquiry from Southgate opens with the same three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. When those are known, a range turns into a single fixed number.
You get that price on the 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 policy: plenty include misfuelling.
Southgate: still next to the vehicle?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the most useful move open to you. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran is everything our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Ceredigion, Southgate included.