What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Bartley
One fact matters most when AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and it is if the engine has been started since. Out in Copythorne or here around Bartley, an unstarted motor must remain that way. Switch nothing on, phone 0333 366 0103, then expect a thorough flush plus a drain, done right where your vehicle stands around Bartley. Already started? Stop once safe, then switch everything off. A larger job, then, but the same opening step.
Below: the situations our technicians meet, wherever across Hampshire. Pick the one that fits.
AdBlue in a diesel on a Bartley forecourt
You are at the petrol pump, the nozzle or the bottle still in your hand, and you have just noticed the cap you opened was the wrong one. Whether Texaco, Morrisons or somewhere else in Bartley, the situation is the same.
In short: there is no better spot to be to discover it. Only that tank has AdBlue; not one part past it has taken it in.
Next: avoid the urge to fire it up just to move away from the pump. Ask the staff to help you roll your car into a parking bay, keep the till receipt or the bottle, then call us from the forecourt. If it can't be shifted, it can be emptied at the petrol pump: the equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a working forecourt.
Bartley, at home: AdBlue in the diesel tank
The warning light had been on for days. A bottle from the garage, tipped in at the drive — and it was only by the recycling that the cap got your eye. Just off Beechwood Road is no different from anywhere.
The upshot: zero miles since leaves this nearly as good to finding it at the pump. As it is reluctant to mix, AdBlue settles to the base inside the tank and waits. A night parked alters nothing.
Next: stop an early-morning drive by keeping the keys indoors, then phone us. Your driveway is where it gets drained, be it in Bartley or Cadnam. The pumping kit works quiet enough that it won't wake the neighbours at night.
On the road around Bartley with AdBlue in a diesel
Lumpy running, smoke, falling power or a glowing dashboard started a short way beyond the top-up. Perhaps it was on Chinham Road, possibly on the way out towards Southampton, under 10 miles away.
In short: the AdBlue has been sucked through your fuel system. It's been through the fuel filter and the lines and, the further you went, into the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors. Each restart, like each mile, carries it deeper.
Next: pick a sensible place, stop, then switch your engine off. On the M27, under a mile from Bartley, that means the next junction, not the services further on. No test starts: clearing is not something AdBlue will do. Let us hear the mileage covered when you ring.
A hire or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank?
You've had this vehicle hardly a week. Unbeknown to you, the two inlets sit next to each other here — not like your own vehicle, which has no AdBlue or keeps it elsewhere. It can happen to anyone, anywhere across Hampshire.
Meaning? Whichever case above applies here — run or unrun — and one further step. Plenty of hire and company contracts want the owner to approve work on the vehicle.
What to do: call the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That is quicker settled before we get there than after. Waiting for a reply at the car park outside Ashurst New Forest, or beside Beechwood House? Leave the engine off throughout.
Bartley: unsure if it was AdBlue in the diesel tank?
"I think so" is sometimes the most honest as it gets. The bottle is lighter than it should be, there is a faint smell of ammonia round your filler, and you cannot remember which cap you took off. It might have been at a friend's drive in Newbridge, or rushing outside Bartley Church of England Junior School on the school run.
Put simply: spillage near the filler does your motor no harm. AdBlue inside your diesel tank does. You can't tell which by turning the ignition, and doing so would suck in any AdBlue that is in your tank.
What to do: treat it as if it got in. Don't fire it up. Call us and explain what you saw; we would rather check a tank that turns out free of AdBlue than drain one that has already been run.
Every AdBlue drain in Bartley shares these stages
Whatever the situation, a single opening is used. Filling station, drive, The Haywain's car park or a road by Copythorne Parish Hall — the van comes to your vehicle, and three questions follow: which fluid, which amount, and if it ran. On the phone, ahead of dispatch, you hear our price, and those answers decide the job too.
AdBlue crystallises and eats at some metals used in fuel systems, so it won't rinse out on its own; that is why a full flush, after the drain, matters far more here than with petrol. Finally are the fuel filter, flushed or renewed as needed; clean diesel; and a check of the car. Never started? Then roughly half an hour once we are there is most jobs.
Our technicians start the engine at the end. With fresh diesel in, it runs while our technicians confirm it's running smoothly, and then we go. We do the entire job where the car is, and long-term damage is very uncommon if it has been spotted soon. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Bartley, briefly
Bartley is a small village in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of 26 metres, approximately 7 miles north of Southampton. Bartley has a population of around 892 residents and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Bartley is located near the villages of Cadnam, Winsor, and Woodlands, and is about 74 miles southwest of London. Bartley sits in a rural area, surrounded by countryside.
Bartley and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over SO postcodes, the teams serving Bartley — a rural village — reach surrounding towns as well, Winsor and Woodlands among them. Giving us a SO40 2 postcode finds you quickest of all.
No moving is required, whether stopped centrally in Bartley or on a lay-by heading to Bartley Green, so keep it put. Our van empties it where it stands. Awkward to pin down? By Bartley Village Hall or a border? Asking is better than guessing, so ring.
Your situation, in one line
Not run yet: keep it off then ring. Whichever line applies, Petrol in Diesel handles the rest on 0333 366 0103, throughout Hampshire and within Bartley — after you pull over, switch off and ring, if it has run.