AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Trelewis? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble starts once it's pulled through your lines — it won't ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Trelewis, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the motor has been run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Trelewis: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Ring just where you are. Say a CF46 6 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Never do these:
- Moving the car even a few yards is no reason to start your motor.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of 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.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch up Bontnewydd Terrace.
- Emptying the tank on your own beside the road is not one to try.
At a forecourt in Trelewis, whether it's the Gulf Treharris Service Station or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car clear of the pump. If you're on your own drive, leave it exactly where it sits.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Stored in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. No part inside an injection pump is made for this liquid — and none of it was meant to go that way.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the same place the intake draws from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Pentwyn Berthlwyd last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps working on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting till morning around Trelewis makes it worse. Inside the tank alone, time does nothing. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Petrol put into a diesel on Texaco's forecourt makes your fuel thin — that's the whole issue. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's in that tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. It cannot simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. Deposits and corrosion stay through the following fill, and AdBlue splits again from your diesel, and so thinning it can't help. That is why the flush counts more, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Craig Berthlwyd or the heart of Trelewis equally.
As with petrol, there's good news. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits just in your tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to empty, anywhere the car has come to rest across Merthyr Tydfil.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Trelewis: how it ends up there
Many cars place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and in dim light the two can appear the same. Nobody intends it. Mostly it is never the filling station: a driver picks up a container heading home and pours it in at home.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside the local primary school the top-up is hurried. After work, a bottle goes in on a driveway near St. Mary Street. Otherwise, after dark by Ffaldcaiach Inn, your vehicle is refilled by someone using that flap for the first time.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new car, a company motor, or the other vehicle of a home with both fuel types — the vehicles people know the least. Anywhere around Merthyr Tydfil, Trelewis as well, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first response: leave it switched off.
Trelewis: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Through the filter, through the lines, and — with any running time — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's how far it travels.
You may see your engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Taff Bargoed Park or halfway across Trelewis. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the car off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Trelewis lies under 10 miles from the M4; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop safely rather than carrying on.
Mileage matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, and so driving towards Cardiff, under 15 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing Trelewis to the car park by Bethania Church Treharris. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the engine has been started. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage when it's caught soon.
Trelewis: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A street by Treharris Library, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: wherever the car has come to rest around Trelewis, we come to it. Three replies shape the job, so before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, roughly the amount, plus whether your motor has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave as one when that tank is drained, right there. What remains from AdBlue won't wash away by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts much more with urea than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers arrive, provided your engine has not run. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Lastly, your system is bled with fresh diesel. Whether it is a parking space outside Quakers Yard or a driveway in Trelewis, that is where our engineers fire it up and you drive off. Our technicians check it runs smoothly on new diesel before we go. As the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Trelewis
Trelewis is a small village in Merthyr Tydfil, situated near the lakeside and surrounded by rolling hills. Trelewis has a population of around 1068 people and is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing. Trelewis is located near the Taff Merthyr Garden Village and other nearby communities such as Treharris and Melin Caiach. Trelewis sits at an elevation of 152 metres, approximately 14 miles north of Cardiff.
Trelewis and Merthyr Tydfil: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs around Trelewis are passed to teams that serve the towns around it — Treharris, Taff Merthyr Garden Village plus Melin Caiach — and much of Merthyr Tydfil beyond, across CF postcodes. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A van that comes to you suits Trelewis, a village: there's no need to bring the car to us, because our technicians drain it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
Trelewis: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one single figure could be honest, since every job differs. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, since an open driveway is simpler for a technician to reach safely than a tight space behind Saint Matthias Church Treharris.
That's why each call from Trelewis starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it has run. Given those replies, the range narrows to a single firm figure.
Our quote is given on the call, before anyone 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.
Still beside your car around Trelewis?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Trelewis or wherever in Merthyr Tydfil.