Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tyn-y-bryn
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Tyn-y-bryn, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your motor has been run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do right now, Tyn-y-bryn: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Pull your keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Which fluid, and about what quantity? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Call right where you are. Quote a CF39 8 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to search for you.
Do not:
- Shifting the car just a few yards is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the instant your ignition comes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't weaken it.
- Even a short way along Tynybryn Road is too far to drive the car.
- Emptying the tank on your own beside the road is not one to try.
Get the attendants to help you move your vehicle away from the pumps if you're on a forecourt in Tyn-y-bryn, whether it's the Gulf or somewhere else. On that drive, the vehicle remains exactly where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to treat the gases. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and pools down where the intake draws its fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Rhiwinder last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of harm come 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, and so it keeps labouring on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. Lines carrying AdBlue spell damage by morning for a car parked around Tyn-y-bryn. Just inside the tank, it stays stable. And there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that rely on it most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more significant than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Texaco, and the problem is thinned fuel. Harm only comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting in that tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It can't simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. Whether your car is in Coedely or the centre of Tyn-y-bryn, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere across Rhondda Cynon Taf your car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Tyn-y-bryn
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, occasionally under one flap, and after dark the two can appear identical. Nobody means it. A container picked up when driving home and tipped in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the usual route.
Usually, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. The refill gets hurried outside the local primary school, because your dash lit up with a warning while the kids were dropped in. Someone tips the bottle in outside their house, just off Heol Brynteg, as the day ends. Another version: darkness, a pub car park by Boars Head, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
It takes place most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it off: that is the first response to an identical slip, anywhere in Tyn-y-bryn or the remainder of Rhondda Cynon Taf you happen to be.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Tyn-y-bryn, and the engine started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is where it has gone.
Watch for rough running, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Dai's Park, perhaps, or part way across Tyn-y-bryn. Once you safely can, stop and switch everything off — without turning it on again to see. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M4, under 5 miles from Tyn-y-bryn, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Tyn-y-bryn to the car park by Saint David's Church is a very different job from a run towards Cardiff, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the cleaning where the car has stopped, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Long-term damage is very rare when it is noticed soon.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Tyn-y-bryn: what it takes
A road by Capel Farm Community Centre, a drive, a layby or a filling station: anywhere the car has stopped around Tyn-y-bryn, we come to it. The job depends on three replies, and our engineers ask for before all else — what went in, the amount, and if your motor has run.
Then your tank is drained where the vehicle stands, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. Engine not run? In that case count on about 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 at night.
Priming the fuel system with clean diesel comes at the end. Whether it is a parking space by Porth or a drive around Tyn-y-bryn, that is where our technicians fire it up and you set off. Our engineers check it runs correctly on new diesel before we leave. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Tyn-y-bryn
Tyn-y-bryn is a suburban area in Rhondda Cynon Taf, situated near the riverside at an elevation of 121 metres. Tyn-y-bryn lies approximately 13 miles north of Cardiff and is part of the wider commuter belt around the city. Tyn-y-bryn has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Tyn-y-bryn is close to nearby places such as Bryngolau, Tonyrefail, and Thomastown.
AdBlue drains across Tyn-y-bryn and Rhondda Cynon Taf
The teams that answer AdBlue jobs in Tyn-y-bryn also cover the spots about it, Bryngolau, Tonyrefail and Thomastown among them, and most of Rhondda Cynon Taf beyond, across the CF postcode area. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
No moving is needed. In Tyn-y-bryn, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: your car is drained on the spot, whether on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Tyn-y-bryn: the cost of fixing it
Not one flat figure could be fair, because each job differs. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Coedely Community Centre.
That's why every call from Tyn-y-bryn starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it's run. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Tyn-y-bryn: still beside the vehicle?
Then, the best thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Tyn-y-bryn or anywhere within Rhondda Cynon Taf, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran.