Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Walwen
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and the ignition too. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. The harm begins once it's sucked through your pump — it won't burn, and it will not blend with diesel. In Walwen, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Walwen: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, which prevents someone turning the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting CH8 8, or whatever street lies closest, and our van finds you straight — so ring wherever you are.
Don't do these:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Turning the key to ignition alone starts your pump going on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance along Ffordd Walwen is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself by the roadside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move your vehicle off the pumps if you are on a forecourt around Walwen, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or somewhere else. On your own driveway, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to treat the fumes. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, won't. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It drops, because it's heavier than diesel, and settles down where the pickup draws its supply from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Pen-Uchar Plwyf last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Once it's pulled in, the damage takes two forms. It eats at certain metals used in fuel systems, working on any part it reaches till it's removed completely. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny passages. Overnight, a vehicle sitting in Walwen with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it is just in the tank, nothing changes. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, and that is a second kind of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes the fuel watery — that's the main problem. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting inside the tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Rhes-y-cae or the middle of Walwen.
As with petrol, there's good news. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Flintshire the car is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Walwen?
It is not deliberate. Many vehicles have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. A bottle picked up while heading home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. The top-up is rushed outside the local primary school, because the dash lit up with a warning as the kids were dropped in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Bryn Tirion. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Crown Inn, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs 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. Same mistake, same first step — keep it switched off — wherever you are in Walwen or the rest of Flintshire.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Walwen?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Through the filter, along the lines, and — with any running time — into the injection pump and every injector: that's where it travels.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might appear, maybe part way across Walwen or coming back from Berthen Covert. Stop when safe. Switch off. Leave the car off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M53, under 15 miles from Walwen, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Hopping across Walwen to the car park by Capel y Berthen is one thing; heading for St Asaph, under 10 miles away, is another, because each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once the engine has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Long-term damage is very rare if it is noticed early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Walwen?
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Walwen: a side street close to Saint Michael and All Angels Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else we ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether the engine has been run, since those answers decide this work.
Next, draining your tank right there takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after your filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then your car is tested. If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Priming the fuel system with fresh diesel comes last. You head off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Walwen or in a space by Flint. Before leaving, our technicians make sure it is running properly with fresh diesel in. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Walwen and where it is
Walwen is a small suburban area in Flintshire, situated inland at an elevation of 201 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Walwen lies approximately 8.6 miles from St Asaph and is close to nearby places such as Lixwm, Waen-trochwaed, and Pwll-melyn. Walwen has a population of around 626 residents and is located about 177.3 miles from London. Walwen is characterized by its rural setting and relatively small size.
AdBlue drains in Walwen and across Flintshire
Lixwm, Waen-trochwaed and Pwll-melyn are among the places near Walwen that the same vans serve, along with much of Flintshire beyond, throughout the CH postcode area. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Asking is better than assuming, so phone.
No moving is needed. In Walwen, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: your car is emptied on the spot, whether in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Walwen: the cost of fixing it
No flat price would be honest, since each job is different. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Rhes-y-cae Horse Whimsey Site.
For that in mind, every enquiry from Walwen begins by asking the same trio — which fluid was put in, what quantity, if it ran — ahead of a quote. With them, a range narrows to one fixed figure.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Walwen: still next to your car?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the best thing open to you. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Walwen or wherever within Flintshire, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran.