AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Bognor Regis, and What to Do Next
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank depends on one thing more than any other: whether your motor has run since it was put in. Anywhere your car stands — Aldwick, Bognor Regis — don't start an engine that has not run yet. Keep nothing on, phone 0333 366 0103, then expect a proper flush plus a drain, carried out just where the car stands in Bognor Regis. Where your engine has been run, pull in somewhere safe straight away, then turn it off. A bigger job, then, but the identical first step.
Find the situation below that matches yours, wherever across West Sussex it happened.
AdBlue in a diesel on a Bognor Regis forecourt
Just now, bottle still in your hand, you realise that the cap you opened was the wrong one, there at the pump. Maybe you are at the Tesco, perhaps at the Sainsbury's, possibly somewhere else around Bognor Regis.
What it means: this is the ideal place to find out. The AdBlue is inside that tank and nowhere else. Nothing has sucked it in.
Next: resist the urge to fire it up just to free up the petrol pump. Have the attendants to help pushing it into a bay, save the receipt, then phone us from there. Stuck beside the pump? Explosion-proof equipment keeps a busy forecourt safe, and so it can be drained where it is.
AdBlue in the diesel tank on a Bognor Regis drive?
For days the dash had been warning you. Bought a bottle, tipped it in outside the house, binned the empty — and only then looked at the cap a second time, too late. Homes just off Lyon Street are caught out as often as anywhere else.
In short: if the vehicle hasn't moved since, it's almost as good as spotting it at the forecourt. AdBlue does not mix with diesel; it sinks to the bottom of your tank and waits there. Overnight doesn't change that.
Put your keys indoors overnight — or someone may drive it off first thing — then phone us. Out in South Bersted or right here around Bognor Regis, the drain happens at your driveway. Our equipment works quiet enough that it won't wake the neighbours at night.
Set off with AdBlue in a diesel around Bognor Regis?
Lumpy running, smoke, falling power or a lit dashboard arrived a mile or two after the top-up. Maybe heading for Chichester, under 10 miles away, or simply along Clarence Road.
Meaning? The fuel pump has sucked the AdBlue up. The high-pressure pump and each injector see it too on a bigger trip, once the filter and pipework have it. Every restart, like every mile, pushes it deeper.
Your move: pull up anywhere sensible, then switch the motor off. Service stations farther along are too far: from the Waterlooville Bypass, under 25 miles out of Bognor Regis, use the next junction. Restarting it to test gets nothing — AdBlue doesn't clear itself. Let us hear the distance driven as you call.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company motors
It's a vehicle you have had for a week. Your own vehicle either does without AdBlue or puts it somewhere different, so no one told you the AdBlue inlet sits just beside the diesel. Throughout West Sussex, nobody is immune.
The upshot: just as above, split by if it ran, only with an added step. The owner often has to approve the work, under many hire and company agreements.
What to do: ring the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That is faster settled before our technicians arrive than after. Waiting for an answer in the car park outside the nearest station, or near Our Lady Of Sorrows? Leave the engine off throughout.
Unsure about AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bognor Regis?
"I think so" is often as honest as it gets. Lighter, the bottle; a trace of ammonia round the filler; no clear memory of the cap. Sound familiar? Possibly it happened in a hurry at the school gates at St Mary's Catholic Primary School, or on a friend's drive in Shripney.
What it means: a little spilled about the filler does no damage to your motor. Inside your diesel tank, by contrast, AdBlue damages it. Starting your car won't tell you which, and if there is AdBlue in your tank it will draw it in.
Next: assume it went in, then keep your engine off. Tell us what you noticed on your phone. A clear tank looked at counts as a better result than a run one emptied.
Bognor Regis: what each AdBlue drain has in common
Whichever scenario you are in, this job starts the same way. Forecourt, driveway, The William Hardwicke's car park or a road by Bognor Regis Town Hall — our van comes to the vehicle, and three answers follow: what fluid, what amount, and whether it ran. The price comes on the call, before a van leaves, and the answers shape the job.
Then the tank is cleared and the system flushed thoroughly, which matters 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. Then is your filter — flushed, or swapped when needed — then fresh diesel, and a test of the car. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there.
Our technicians start the engine at the end. Before we leave, it is checked to make sure it runs properly on fresh diesel. Long-term damage is very uncommon when it's caught quickly, and the entire job is done where your car is. Payment is on the day, never in advance. For the insurer, there is a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling, so look at yours while the van travels.
About Bognor Regis
Bognor Regis is a seaside town in West Sussex, situated on the coast of the English Channel at a low elevation of around 6 metres. Bognor Regis lies near the cities of Chichester and Portsmouth, and is surrounded by smaller communities such as South Bersted and Felpham. Bognor Regis has a population of approximately 22,106 people, with a high proportion of flat dwellings. Bognor Regis is located about 55 miles from London, making it a popular destination for those seeking a coastal retreat.
AdBlue drains around Bognor Regis, and across West Sussex too
Bognor Regis is a coastal town, and the same teams that cover it work the towns near it too, Felpham and North Bersted among them, across the PO postcode area. Telling us a PO21 1 postcode pins you fastest of all.
Centre of Bognor Regis or a lay-by near Winter Garden: either way it sits, the car never needs to move at all for us. The van drains it where it stands. If you're somewhere hard to describe, close to Alexandra Theatre or close to a boundary, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The one-line version
Unstarted? Leave the car that way and ring. Run already: pull over, power down, ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Bognor Regis or anywhere in West Sussex.