What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Newtown
Everything turns on one detail: if the motor has started after the AdBlue went in — far more than anything else. Out in Kingsland Place or right in Newtown, an unrun engine should stay that way. Leave the motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103; it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Newtown. Where your motor has run, pull in somewhere safe first, then turn the vehicle off. The job is bigger, but the first step is the same.
Wherever across Hampshire it happened, one of the situations below fits yours.
At the petrol pump around Newtown: AdBlue in a diesel
Only at this point, bottle still in hand, you realise that the cap you took off was the wrong one, right at the petrol pump. Whether Esso, Texaco or somewhere else around Newtown, the situation is the same.
What it means: this is the ideal spot to find out. Still in that tank, and nothing drawn onwards: that is where the AdBlue sits.
Your move: stay out of the car, even if the queue needs clearing. Ask the attendants to help you push the car into a parking bay, keep the receipt or the bottle, and ring us from the forecourt. Stuck by the petrol pump? Explosion-proof kit makes a live forecourt sensible, so we can drain the car where it is.
AdBlue in the diesel tank on a Newtown drive?
On your dash, a reminder had been lit for days. A bottle from the shop, tipped in at the drive — and it's just by the bin that the cap caught a second look. Right off St Mary's Road is not less likely from anywhere.
What it means: if you have not driven since, this is almost as good as the forecourt. On the bottom of that tank is where AdBlue waits, since it will not mix with diesel — and a night passing makes nothing of the difference.
Put the keys indoors tonight — otherwise a person might drive it away at breakfast — and phone us. Bellevue or Newtown: whichever your driveway is, that is where it is drained. The equipment runs quiet enough that it won't wake the neighbours at night.
Set off with AdBlue in a diesel in Newtown?
Rough running, smoke, falling power or a lit dashboard arrived a mile or two after the fill. Clovelly Road, say, or the route towards Southampton — a run of under a mile.
The upshot: your system has drawn AdBlue in already. It has been through the fuel filter and the lines and, the further you went, into your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors. Each mile and each restart takes it further.
Pull in somewhere safe — that is the first step — then switch everything off. On the M27, under 3 miles from Newtown, that means the next junction, not the services further on. No trial restarts: clearing isn't something AdBlue does. Roughly what distance had it gone? Say so when you phone.
Hire, lease or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank
Seven days back, the car was unknown to you. Your own motor either has no AdBlue or puts it somewhere different, so nothing warned you the AdBlue cap was just next to your diesel. Wherever you happen to be around Hampshire, every driver can be caught.
Meaning? Whichever applies above counts here — run or unrun — and one further step. The owner often has to sign off any work, under many rental and company agreements.
Sorting it before the van turn up is faster, so phone the rental company or your fleet manager, then us. Hanging on for a reply in the car park at Southampton Central, or near Medina Mosque? Keep the engine off throughout.
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Not sure, around Newtown
"I think so" is often as honest as it gets. The bottle is lighter than it should be, there's a faint smell of ammonia round your filler, and you can't remember which cap you took off. Perhaps it happened in a hurry at the school gates at Mount Pleasant Infants, or on a friend's drive in Polygon.
What it means: a little spilled round your filler does no damage to your motor. AdBlue inside your diesel tank does. If there is AdBlue in that tank, firing up the vehicle would draw it in, and it wouldn't tell you which either.
Do this: behave as though it did, and never start your engine. Tell us what you noticed on the phone. A clean tank looked at is a happier outcome than an already-run one drained.
The common ground in each Newtown AdBlue drain
Each case has the same opening to the work. Wherever the vehicle stands — The Alexandra Arms's car park, a road by The Abu Bakr Jamia Masjid, a drive, a forecourt — our van gets there and we ask about the fluid, the amount, plus whether the motor has been run. On the phone, ahead of dispatch, you hear the price, and those replies decide the work too.
AdBlue forms crystals and is corrosive to certain metals used in fuel systems, and so it won't rinse out unaided; that is why the flush, after the drain, matters far more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Where the engine hasn't been started, allow roughly half an hour on site, for most cases.
Our technicians fire it up last. Before our technicians leave, it's checked to confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. Long-term damage is very unusual if it is caught early, and the whole job is done where the car is. For your insurer: an engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment that day, no money in advance. Dig out your insurance while we arrive: misfuelling cover is included in many policies.
About Newtown, for a moment
Newtown is a suburban area located on the coast of Hampshire, near the city of Southampton. Newtown sits at a low elevation of around 16 metres, with many of its residents living in flats. Newtown is close to other nearby places such as Bellevue, Nichols Town, and Bedford Place, and is situated approximately 68.8 miles from London. Newtown has a population of around 14804 people, making it a sizable residential community.
AdBlue drains round Newtown and across Hampshire
As a new town, Newtown shares its vans with the nearby towns — Bedford Place, Nichols Town — right through SO postcodes. A postcode starting SO14 0 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
Central Newtown or a layby towards Rope Walk Community Garden: either way it is, the car doesn't need to move at all for the drain. Where it stands, that's where it is cleared. Tricky to explain? Close to Hamwic or a border? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
Your situation, in one line
If it has not started, phone then leave it off. Whatever line applies, Petrol in Diesel handles the rest on 0333 366 0103, throughout Hampshire and within Newtown — after you stop, turn off and phone, if it's run.