AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tre-Gibbon? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep your engine off and leave your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm starts until the engine pulls it round. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Tre-Gibbon. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Tre-Gibbon: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring just where you are. Say a CF44 0 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not do these:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to reposition your car.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Plas Newydd Isa.
- Beside the road, don't attempt emptying it yourself.
The attendants on duty at any Tre-Gibbon forecourt — the Tesco among them — will usually help rolling it clear if you ask. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, where it treats the gas. Nothing in a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and none of that was meant to go through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it keeps separate instead of blending — entirely different from fuel. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. When your system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, and that is why a vehicle filled in Trecynon last night and never started stays the simple one, provided no one turns your key.
Once it's pulled in, the harm comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filters and tiny channels; and, because it attacks certain metals, each part it touches suffers for as long as it stays inside. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean harm by morning for a car sitting in Tre-Gibbon. Only in your tank, it stays the same. Then there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the injection pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Texaco, and this problem is diluted fuel. No damage comes while it stays put, blended into your diesel — only once the engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits again — and the following tankful won't clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Tre-Gibbon or out in Robertstown, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere across Rhondda Cynon Taf your car sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Tre-Gibbon: how it ends up there
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone refills your car. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a drive close to Tre Ifor. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at Red Cow, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least familiar cars see it most — rentals, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the other vehicle in a home with one of each fuel types. Wherever you are in Tre-Gibbon or the remainder of Rhondda Cynon Taf, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
Tre-Gibbon: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. The fuel filter and lines have had it sucked through, and some running carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any might appear, maybe midway across Tre-Gibbon or coming back from Llwydcoed Memorial Park. Once you safely can, pull over then turn everything off — without turning it on again to test. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M4, under 15 miles from Tre-Gibbon, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Tre-Gibbon to the car park by Llwyncoed Community Centre is a very different job from a run towards Cardiff, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once your engine has been running. Spotted early, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Tre-Gibbon: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
A street by Saint James' Church, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your vehicle has stopped around Tre-Gibbon, our engineers come to it. Which fluid went in, roughly the quantity, and if your engine has been run: our engineers check first, because those shape the job.
Then that tank is cleared where your car sits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Your system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. After that, your filter: cleaned, or replaced if it must be. Then clean diesel, then a test of your vehicle. Not run? In that case count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on clean diesel. Starting the car comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, by Aberdare or on a drive around Tre-Gibbon. Our engineers make sure it runs properly on clean diesel before leaving. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to go to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Tre-Gibbon itself
Tre-Gibbon is a small locality in Rhondda Cynon Taf, situated near the riverside at an elevation of 228 metres. Tre-Gibbon lies within a short distance of several nearby communities, including Tre-Ifor, Llwydcoed, and Penywaun. Tre-Gibbon is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is located approximately 21 miles north of Cardiff. Tre-Gibbon is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of around 144 miles.
AdBlue drains around Tre-Gibbon and across Rhondda Cynon Taf
Throughout the CF postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs around Tre-Gibbon reach much of Rhondda Cynon Taf too, Tre-Ifor, Llwydcoed and Penywaun among them. Assuming won't help by a border or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
A van that comes to you suits Tre-Gibbon, a small village: there's no need to bring your car to us, because our engineers drain it there, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Tre-Gibbon: the cost of fixing it
There's no fair single quote, because the jobs aren't the same. What moves the cost is, first of all, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind St Fagan's Church.
Which fluid was put in, how much, and whether the engine ran: each Tre-Gibbon enquiry begins with exactly that, before any quote, not after. Those answers narrow the range right down to one figure.
The price is quoted during the call, before a van leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Next to the car in Tre-Gibbon, right now?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Tre-Gibbon or wherever within Rhondda Cynon Taf.