AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Tregaron? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Being water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage just comes once your pump starts pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Tregaron, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your motor has been run. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Tregaron: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Remove the keys, which prevents someone turning the power on.
- Put your hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Give us a postcode starting SY25 6, or whatever street lies nearest, and our van finds you directly — so call wherever you stand.
Don't:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to shift the car.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance up Dewi Road.
- Emptying your tank on your own by the road is not worth trying.
Rolling your vehicle off the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Tregaron forecourt you're on, the Oil4Wales included. On that drive, the car remains just as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It sinks, since it's denser than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its fuel from. When your system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it sits underneath your diesel, and that is why a vehicle topped up in Llanddewi Brefi yesterday and never started remains the simple case, as long as nobody touches the key.
It does two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the parts it reaches for as long as it stays there. Overnight, a vehicle parked in Tregaron with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it's only inside that tank, it doesn't. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, and that is a separate kind of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more significant than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Stags Head garage's forecourt makes your fuel thin — that is the whole fault. No damage comes while it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only when the engine works on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Pentre-rhew or the middle of Tregaron.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Ceredigion your car is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Tregaron: how it ends up there
Many motors put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap, and in dim light the two can look identical. Nobody means it. A bottle bought when heading home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. The refill gets hurried outside the local primary school, after your dash lit up with a warning as the children were dropped in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Chapel Street. Or your car is topped up in the car park at Y Talbot, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It happens most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're around Tregaron or the rest of Ceredigion, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Tregaron, and the engine started?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. It has been pulled through your filter and the fuel lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Caeau Chwarae Ysgol Uwchradd Tregaron, say, or part way across Tregaron. Once you safely can, pull over and switch everything off — with no turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of it through.
Tregaron sits under 50 miles from the M4; if you were on it, exit by the first junction and stop safely rather than driving on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further into the system. That's why a hop across Tregaron to park near Henry Richard Memorial and a drive of under 50 miles for Swansea are very distinct jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once your engine has been running. When it's caught quickly, long-term damage is very uncommon.
Tregaron: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Anywhere it has stopped in Tregaron — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a road by St Caron, Tregaron — our van travels to the car. What got in, about how much, plus if the engine has been run: we ask first, since those decide the work.
Right there, the tank is then emptied, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. The system is purged 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 filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no issue, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Priming the system with new diesel comes at the end. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, by the nearest station or on a drive in Tregaron. It is checked on fresh diesel to be sure it runs properly before we head off. No garage is required at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Tregaron
Tregaron is a small town situated on the banks of the River Teifi in Ceredigion, Wales, with a population of around 1154 people. Tregaron sits at an elevation of 166 metres, surrounded by rolling hills and countryside. Tregaron is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Tregaron is located near other small settlements, including Tynreithin and Llanio, and is within driving distance of Swansea, the nearest city.
AdBlue drains across Ceredigion, Tregaron included
Over the SY postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs in Tregaron reach most of Ceredigion as well, Tynreithin, Stags Head and Llanio included. Guessing won't help close to a border or somewhere hard to describe; phone and check.
No moving is needed. In Tregaron, a riverside town, a van that comes to you fits: the car is emptied where it stands, whether on a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
Tregaron: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because the callouts differ, a single figure wouldn't be fair. What shifts the price is, firstly, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Maes Llydan.
Ahead of a quote, never afterwards, each call from Tregaron begins with the same three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus if the engine ran. Those replies shrink the range down to one figure.
Before a van sets off, you are told our price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
In Tregaron and still alongside the vehicle?
Then, do nothing — that is the best move there is. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether the engine ran are all we need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Ceredigion, Tregaron included.