AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Felpham: What Now?
One fact matters above all when AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and it is whether the engine has been started afterwards. If it has not, keep it that way, whether the vehicle is around Felpham itself or out in Bognor Regis. Keep nothing on, call 0333 366 0103, then expect a proper flush after a drain, carried out just where your vehicle stands in Felpham. Stop the minute it is safe then switch off, if it has been run. A larger job, then, yet the identical first step.
Wherever across West Sussex it took place, one of the cases below matches yours.
AdBlue in a diesel on a Felpham forecourt
You're at the pump, the nozzle or the bottle still in your hand, and you have just noticed the cap you opened was the wrong one. It could be the Esso, or perhaps the Sainsbury's, or a different station around Felpham.
The upshot: of all places to find out, the forecourt is the best. Still inside the tank, with no fuel drawn through: that's where the AdBlue sits.
Your move: keep out of the car, however much the pump needs freeing. Ask the staff to help you roll your car into a parking bay, keep the receipt or the bottle, then call us from the forecourt. Stuck by the petrol pump? Our explosion-proof equipment keeps a live forecourt safe, and so we can drain it where it is.
Felpham, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
On your dash, a reminder had been lit all week. Bought a container, tipped it in outside the house, binned the empty — and at that point looked at the cap again, after the fact. Houses just off Old Manor House Gardens are hit as much as everywhere else.
What it means: if you haven't driven since, this is nearly as good as the forecourt. As it is unable to blend, AdBlue settles to the base inside that tank and waits. One night standing alters none of that.
What to do: leave the keys inside the house so no one moves your car in the morning. Then ring. In Flansham or right here in Felpham, the draining is done on your drive. The pumping kit runs quietly enough that it won't wake the street at night.
Felpham: set off with AdBlue in a diesel?
A mile or two after topping up, your motor started misbehaving: rough running, smoke, less power, warnings on your dash. It might have been heading to Chichester, under 10 miles away, or simply down Felpham Way.
The upshot: the system has drawn AdBlue through already. It's been through the fuel filter and the lines and, the further you went, into the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors. Each restart, like every mile, carries it on.
What to do: pull over where it's safe and switch off. Leave by the next junction — not the services beyond — if you're on the Waterlooville Bypass, under 25 miles from Felpham. It will not have cleared, so there is no point restarting to find out. Tell us hear the distance driven when you call.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company vehicles
You have only driven the car a week. The AdBlue filler is right next to the diesel filler, which you didn't know, because your own car either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere else. Wherever you are in West Sussex, any motorist could slip up.
The upshot: just as above, divided by if it ran, only with an added stage. Any work on the car frequently needs the owner's go-ahead under rental or company terms.
Next: phone the hire company or the fleet manager first, then us — sorting it before we arrive is quicker. Stranded near Felpham Methodist Church or outside Bognor Regis until the firm replies, the vehicle remains turned off the whole time.
Unsure about AdBlue in your diesel tank around Felpham?
"I think so" is often the most honest as it gets. Which cap was taken off, you cannot say; but the bottle feels lighter than expected, and ammonia hangs by the filler. A rushed top-up by the gates of Bishop Tufnell CofE Primary School, Felpham, or a visit to a friend in Ancton: either fit.
Meaning? Spills outside the inlet don't reach your engine at all. If it's inside your diesel tank, though, that changes. If there is AdBlue in that tank, firing up the vehicle would draw it in, and it wouldn't tell you which either.
Assume it was put in, and never turn the key. Describe what you saw on the phone. A clean tank checked is a better outcome than a run one emptied.
The common ground in every Felpham AdBlue drain
Each case has the same opening to the job. Three things are asked once our engineers arrive — at a forecourt, a driveway, a road by Brethren's meeting room or the car park outside The Southdowns: the fluid, the quantity, and if the motor has been started. Those replies decide the work, and you hear the price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
AdBlue crystallises and eats at certain metals used in fuel systems, so it does not rinse out unaided; that is why the flush, after this drain, counts far more with AdBlue than with petrol. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is flushed or replaced, and your car is finally checked. Never started? In that case roughly half an hour once we are there is most jobs.
The last step is firing it up. We check it runs properly on new diesel before we go. Our technicians do the whole job where your car is, and permanent damage is very unusual when it has been noticed early. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of policies include misfuelling, so look at yours as we head over.
About Felpham itself
Felpham is a coastal suburban area in West Sussex, situated near the city of Chichester and close to the South Downs National Park. Felpham lies at a low elevation of around 6 metres, with its detached housing stock reflecting the area's residential character. Felpham is part of the wider Bognor Regis conurbation, with neighbouring communities including Flansham and Middleton-on-Sea. Felpham has a population of approximately 6192 people, living in a mix of old and new housing stock.
AdBlue drains around Felpham, and across West Sussex too
Over PO postcodes, the teams covering Felpham — a residential suburb — work surrounding towns as well, Middleton-on-Sea and South Bersted among them. Fastest of all: a PO22 7 postcode for where you stand.
Parked en route to King George V Playing Field, or right in the centre of Felpham, the vehicle remains put — there is no need to move it at all. Draining is done right there. If you are somewhere hard to describe, close to Jehovah’s Witnesses or close to a boundary, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Your scenario, summed up
Motor never started: ring, leaving it alone. Run already? Pull over, switch off, ring. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder whichever it is, across Felpham and West Sussex, on 0333 366 0103.