Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tonypandy
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep the motor off and leave your ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm starts till your motor sucks it round. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and carefully flushed where your car stands in Tonypandy. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Tonypandy: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Take your keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and roughly what amount? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and we can know.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting CF40 2, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Moving your car even a short way is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the instant your ignition goes on, and so keep the car off.
- Adding extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short way down Royal Terrace.
- Draining that tank on your own by the road isn't one to try.
Moving the vehicle off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever Tonypandy forecourt you're on, the Shell included. If you're on your own drive, leave the car just where it sits.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
It doesn't combine. Once it is poured into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. A vehicle topped up on a drive in Williamstown overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but once the engine runs, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and block filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it is cleared out. Overnight, a car sitting around Tonypandy with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it is just inside your tank, nothing changes. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Asda, and the issue is thinned fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is in the tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Penrhiwfer or the middle of Tonypandy.
As with petrol, there's good news. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Rhondda Cynon Taf the car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Tonypandy?
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — can appear the same. No one means it; plenty of layouts allow it. A container picked up while driving home and poured in at home, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual route.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up your car. Near Station Road, a driver tips a container in on the drive after work. Otherwise, in dim light outside White Rock Hotel, the car is refilled by a driver using that flap the first time.
The least known cars see it most — hire cars, new cars, fleet ones, and the spare car of a home with both fuels. Anywhere around Rhondda Cynon Taf, Tonypandy as well, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first response: leave it switched off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Tonypandy?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through the filter and lines.
Perhaps coming back from Belle Vue Park, or midway across Tonypandy, your engine may go rough, smoke, lose pace, light up the dash or cut out. No starting it again to test: pull over once safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of that through.
Tonypandy lies under 10 miles from the M4; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop safely instead of driving on.
Mileage matters: every mile carries the AdBlue further into your system, and so driving for Cardiff, under 15 miles away, gives a much larger job than hopping across Tonypandy to the car park by Graig Park. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the engine has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. If it's spotted quickly, permanent damage is very rare.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Tonypandy: what it takes
A street beside Penygraig War Memorial, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your car has come to rest in Tonypandy, we travel to it. Three replies shape the job, so first we ask which fluid got in, about what quantity, and if the motor has run.
Then the tank is cleared where your car sits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters much more with urea than for petrol. Testing the vehicle follows at the end, once fresh diesel is added and the fuel filter is cleaned or, if needed, swapped. Engine not run? Then count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The last step is to bleed the system on new diesel. After that we fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking bay at Dinas Rhondda or a driveway around Tonypandy. Before leaving, our technicians confirm it's running correctly with new diesel in. Since the job is done in full where your car is, a garage never comes into it. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Tonypandy, briefly
Tonypandy is a town in Rhondda Cynon Taf, situated on the banks of the River Rhondda, with a mix of terraced housing and commercial properties. Tonypandy sits at an elevation of 147 metres, surrounded by the South Wales Valleys landscape. Tonypandy is located near the towns of Penygraig, Dinas, and Trealaw, and is approximately 14.9 miles northwest of Cardiff. Tonypandy has a population of around 12,465 people, with the town's housing stock predominantly comprising terraced homes.
AdBlue drains across Rhondda Cynon Taf, Tonypandy included
Throughout the CF postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs around Tonypandy serve most of Rhondda Cynon Taf too, Penygraig, Dinas and Trealaw among them. Assuming doesn't help close to a border or anywhere tricky to describe; ring and ask.
No towing is needed. In Tonypandy, a riverside town, a mobile service works: your vehicle is drained where it stands, whether in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Tonypandy: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no honest single price, because the jobs are not the same. What shifts the cost is, first of all, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and after that where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Pisgah Chapel.
That is why each call from Tonypandy starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it has run. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Before a van heads out, you hear our quote by phone. Then you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. While the van is on the way, check your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
Tonypandy: still beside the vehicle?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Tonypandy or anywhere around Rhondda Cynon Taf.