Upper Killay: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Upper Killay, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your engine has run. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Upper Killay, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, pull your keys away.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly how much, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting SA2 7, or whichever street lies closest, and the van finds you directly — so ring from wherever you stand.
Never:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your vehicle: your engine stays off.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, so it's wasted.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short stretch along Gower Road.
- By the road, do not attempt emptying it on your own.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle off the island if you're on a forecourt in Upper Killay, whether it is the Esso or elsewhere. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, where it treats the gas. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays apart rather than blending — entirely different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Olchfa last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Once it's drawn in, the damage takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny channels; meanwhile, since it attacks certain metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. A vehicle left standing around Upper Killay with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, and that is a second form of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
A problem of thin fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol from the Texaco. No harm comes while it stays put, mixed into your diesel — only once the engine works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Crystals and corrosion stay through the following fill, and AdBlue separates again from your diesel, so watering it won't help. Hence the flush matters so much, and turning the key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Three Crosses or the heart of Upper Killay equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Swansea the car is standing.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Upper Killay: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it is never the forecourt: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone tops up your car. A driver pours the bottle in outside their house, just off Llys Gwyr, as the day ends. Another pattern: darkness, a pub car park by The Railway Inn, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the spare motor in a family with both fuel types — the cars people use least. Same mistake, an identical first response — keep it switched off — anywhere you are in Upper Killay or the rest of Swansea.
Upper Killay: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. The filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
You may see your engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Clyne Valley BMX Pump Track or halfway across Upper Killay. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M4, under 5 miles from Upper Killay, by the first junction and park safely, rather than driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Upper Killay to the car park by Fairwood Playing Fields is a very different job from a run towards Swansea, under 5 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the cleaning where your car has stopped, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. Lasting damage is very unusual if it's caught early.
Upper Killay: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped in Upper Killay — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a road by Killay Library — our van travels to the car. The job depends on three answers, which our engineers get before all else — which fluid got in, the quantity, and whether the engine has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave as one when your tank is drained, on the spot. Your system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in once your filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Priming your system with fresh diesel comes at the end. At that point we start it and you head off, whether from a parking space at Gowerton or a drive in Upper Killay. The check before our engineers go is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to go to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Upper Killay and where it is
Upper Killay is a small village situated on the outskirts of Swansea, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a population of around 937 residents. Upper Killay sits at an elevation of 92 metres, close to the coast and near the communities of Dunvant, Killay, and Fairwood. Upper Killay is located approximately 4.2 miles from Swansea city centre, making it a commuter-friendly location. Upper Killay benefits from its proximity to the nearby city and surrounding countryside.
AdBlue drains across Upper Killay and Swansea
Dunvant, Killay and Fairwood are among the places around Upper Killay that the same vans reach, along with much of Swansea beyond, over the SA postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
A mobile service fits Upper Killay, a coastal village: there's no need to take your car to us, because our technicians drain it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
Upper Killay: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single quote, since the jobs are not the same. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind St Hilary.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, plus if the engine ran: every Upper Killay call begins by asking precisely those, before any quote, never afterwards. Once they are known, a range becomes one firm number.
Before a van heads out, you are told the price on the phone. And payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is on the way, check your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
Next to your car in Upper Killay, right now?
Then, the best thing to do with the car is to leave it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Upper Killay or anywhere in Swansea.