Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tir-y-dail
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep the engine off and leave your ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. As it is water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; damage only comes once the pump begins pulling it. Caught before the engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Tir-y-dail. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Tir-y-dail: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the quantity, so do not throw it out.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting SA18 2, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Moving your vehicle even a few yards is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself starts your pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short stretch up Tir-y-dail Lane is too far to drive the car.
- Draining your tank yourself by the road isn't one to try.
The attendants working at any Tir-y-dail forecourt — the Tesco among them — will usually lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Betws 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 pulled it in.
Two kinds of harm come from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny passages; meanwhile, since it eats at some metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it stays inside. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, waiting till morning around Tir-y-dail leaves things worse. Inside that tank alone, waiting costs nothing. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger fault?
An issue of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the another forecourt nearby. Mixed through the diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless for now; using the motor does the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Pantyffynnon or the middle of Tir-y-dail.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere across Carmarthenshire the car has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Tir-y-dail: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. The refill gets rushed outside the local primary school, after the dash lit up with a warning as the kids were dropped off. In the evening, a container goes in on a drive close to Station Road. Otherwise, in dim light by Great Western, your car gets topped up by a driver using that flap for the first time.
It takes place most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same mistake, an identical first response — keep it switched off — wherever you happen to be in Tir-y-dail or the remainder of Carmarthenshire.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Tir-y-dail, and the engine started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The filter and lines have had it pulled along, and any running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Expect rough running, smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Ammanford Park, perhaps, or part way across Tir-y-dail. No starting it again to test: stop once it is safe, then switch everything off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M4, under 5 miles from Tir-y-dail, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere sensible is where to park — not carrying on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system, and so driving towards Swansea, under 15 miles away, makes a much larger job than crossing Tir-y-dail to the car park by Gwynfryn Chapel. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once the motor has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage if it's noticed early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Tir-y-dail?
The car remains where it is, whether that's a road beside Ammanford Town Hall, a drive, a layby or a filling station in Tir-y-dail, and our van comes to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if the motor has run, because those answers determine the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together when that tank is drained, right there. Residue from AdBlue won't flush out by itself, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. A test of your car follows at the end, after fresh diesel goes in and the filter gets cleaned or, if necessary, replaced. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers turn up, provided your engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Priming the fuel system with clean diesel comes last. Whether it is a parking bay at Ammanford or a drive in Tir-y-dail, that is where our engineers start the engine and you set off. Our engineers confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before we go. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Tir-y-dail itself
Tir-y-dail is a suburban area in Carmarthenshire, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 36 metres. Tir-y-dail lies near the towns of Ammanford and Myddyn-fych, and is within commuting distance of Swansea, which is 12 miles away. Tir-y-dail has a population of around 2581 people, predominantly living in semi-detached houses. Tir-y-dail is part of a wider urban area that has developed along the riverside in this part of Wales.
AdBlue drains across Carmarthenshire, Tir-y-dail included
Ammanford, Myddyn-fych and Penybanc are among the towns around Tir-y-dail that the same vans reach, along with much of Carmarthenshire beyond, throughout the SA postcode area. Ring and check instead of guessing if you're close to a county line, or somewhere awkward to pin down.
Tir-y-dail is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Tir-y-dail?
Every job differs, and so not one single price is fair. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, since an open driveway is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight gap behind English Congregational Church.
Which fluid went in, how much, plus whether the engine ran: every Tir-y-dail enquiry opens with exactly that, ahead of a figure, not afterwards. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van sets off, you are told our price on the phone. And you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
In Tir-y-dail and still alongside the car?
Right now, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether the engine ran are all our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Carmarthenshire, Tir-y-dail included.