AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Tycroes, and What to Do Next
One fact matters above all once AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and that is if the motor has run since. Anywhere your car is — Capel Hendre, Tycroes — don't run an engine that hasn't run yet. Usually this is draining and thoroughly rinsing it right there around Tycroes — and so keep your key and engine off then ring 0333 366 0103. Already started? Stop once you safely can, then turn it off. It's a larger job, though step one doesn't change.
Wherever around Carmarthenshire it took place, one of the cases below fits yours.
At the pump in Tycroes: AdBlue in a diesel
Only now, bottle still in hand, it dawns on you that the cap you opened was the wrong one, there at the petrol pump. Somewhere in Tycroes, then — Essar, Tesco, or anywhere else close by.
Meaning? Finding out here is the best it gets. Still in your tank, with nothing drawn onwards: that's where the AdBlue is.
Do this: stay out of the driver's seat, however much the queue needs clearing. Ask the staff to help you push your car into a parking bay, keep your receipt or the bottle, then ring us from the forecourt. The equipment is explosion-proof and safe on a busy forecourt, and so a car that can't be pushed clear gets cleared right at the pump.
Tycroes, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
For days the dash had been nagging you. Only by the recycling, the empty bottle in your hand, did you look back at the cap you'd used on the drive. Driveways close to Pontarddulais Road get it as much as anywhere.
The point: no miles since makes it nearly equal to spotting it at the petrol pump. As it is reluctant to mix, AdBlue settles low in the tank and waits. One night standing changes none of that.
What to do: leave your keys inside the house so no one moves the car in the morning. Then ring. Your driveway is where it gets emptied, be it around Tycroes or Fferws Hill. Night-time drains outside a house are fine: the pumps are low-noise.
Tycroes: drove off with AdBlue in a diesel?
Lumpy running, smoke, falling power or a glowing dashboard started a short way after the fill. Heol Tycroes, say, or the route to Swansea — a trip of under 15 miles.
In short: the AdBlue has been sucked into the system. Past the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — the further the distance — on into the high-pressure pump and every injector. More miles, more restarts: further it goes.
Next: pick a sensible spot, stop, then turn your motor off. Tycroes sits under 3 miles from the M4; there, pull off at the first junction rather than pushing on to the services. It will not have cleared, so there's no point starting it again to check. Phone, saying how far the car went.
A hire or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank?
A week ago, it was unknown to you. Unbeknown to you, the two inlets are side by side here — unlike your own vehicle, which has none or stores it in another spot. Wherever you happen to be in Carmarthenshire, every motorist could slip up.
The upshot: just as above, divided by whether it ran, but with one added step. The owner frequently has to sign off any work, under many rental and company contracts.
What to do: ring the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That's quicker settled before we get there than after. If you are stuck in the car park at Pantyffynnon, or by St Edmund's Church, while you wait for an answer, leave your car off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Not sure, around Tycroes
Truthfully, the only answer might be that you think so. Which cap came off, you cannot recall; meanwhile the bottle weighs less than expected, and a whiff of ammonia hangs by your filler. The gates of the local primary school in a rush, perhaps, or a friend's driveway over in Pantyffynnon.
Put simply: spillage round your filler does your motor unharmed. Inside the diesel tank, by contrast, AdBlue harms it. Firing up the car cannot tell you which, and if there is AdBlue in your tank it would suck it in.
What to do: treat it as if it went in. Don't fire it up. Call us and describe what you saw; we'd rather check a tank that turns out free of AdBlue than drain one that has already been run.
Tycroes: what every AdBlue drain has in common
The work begins the same way, whatever the case. We come to the vehicle, whether it is at a forecourt, a driveway, the car park at the pub in the village or a side street close to Capel Moriah, and ask three things: what was put in, about how much, and whether the motor has been run. Answers shape the job; the price follows by phone whilst nobody has left yet.
Then the tank is drained and your system purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol: AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not rinse out on its own. Last are the fuel filter, cleaned or renewed as needed; fresh diesel; and a test of the car. Most unstarted cars are a half-hour visit from the moment our technicians arrive.
The last step is starting the engine. With clean diesel in, it runs while our technicians make sure it's running correctly, and then we go. Lasting damage is very unusual when it is noticed soon, and the entire job is done where the car is. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many policies cover misfuelling, so check yours while the van travels.
About Tycroes, briefly
Tycroes is a small village in Carmarthenshire, situated near the River Loughor and surrounded by rolling countryside. Tycroes has a mix of semi-detached housing and is located close to the communities of Fferws Hill, Penybanc, and Coopers. Tycroes sits at an elevation of 77 metres, near the city of Swansea, which is 11 miles away. Tycroes is a residential area with a population of around 638 people.
AdBlue drains around Tycroes, and across Carmarthenshire too
Penybanc and Coopers have the same teams as Tycroes, a village, along with other towns throughout SA postcodes. Giving us your SA18 3 postcode pins you quickest of all.
No towing is required, whether stopped centrally in Tycroes or in a layby en route to Fferws Park, so leave it where it is. Our technicians drain it where it sits. Ring and ask instead of guessing when you're by Caersalem Chapel, on a border, or anywhere awkward to explain.
Your situation, summed up
Still unrun? Keep it off then phone. Whichever case fits, Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest on 0333 366 0103, throughout Carmarthenshire and within Tycroes — once you stop, switch off then phone, if it's run.