Selsmore: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank depends on one thing more than any other: whether the motor has run since it was put in. Over in Sea View or here around Selsmore, an unstarted engine must remain unrun. Keep nothing on, ring 0333 366 0103, then count on a proper flush after a drain, carried out just where the car sits around Selsmore. If it's run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. It is a bigger job, though stage one doesn't change.
Find the situation below that matches yours, wherever in Hampshire it happened.
At the pump in Selsmore: AdBlue in a diesel
The cap you opened was the wrong one — and you only spot it while you're stood at the petrol pump, bottle or nozzle in hand. It might be the JET, or the Esso, or another station in Selsmore.
Put simply: there is no better spot exists to spot it. The AdBlue is in your tank and nowhere else. Nothing has sucked it in.
Next: avoid the urge to fire it up just to move away from the pump. Ask the staff to help you push the vehicle into a parking spot, keep your receipt or the bottle, and phone us from the forecourt. The equipment is explosion-proof and safe on a live forecourt, so a car that cannot be pushed clear is cleared where it is at the pump.
Selsmore, at home: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Several days had gone by with the dash light on. You bought a bottle, poured it in on the drive, and only when you put the empty bottle in the recycling did you look again at the cap. Houses just off Burdale Drive get hit as often as anywhere else.
What it means: if you haven't driven since, this is nearly as good as the forecourt. As it is reluctant to mix, AdBlue settles to the base in that tank and waits. A night parked alters none of that.
What to do: leave the keys inside the house so nobody moves the car in the morning. Then call. We drain it on your drive, whether that is around Selsmore or out in Eastoke. The equipment works quietly enough not to disturb the street at night.
Selsmore: set off with AdBlue in a diesel?
A mile or two beyond topping up, the engine began playing up: roughness, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash. Seaview Road, perhaps, or the route to Portsmouth — a trip of under 10 miles.
In short: the AdBlue has been pulled into your fuel system. Through the fuel filter, through the lines, and — the more the distance — on into the injection pump and every injector. Each restart, like each mile, carries it on.
Pull in safely — that is the next job — then turn everything off. Services farther along are too far: from the Waterlooville Bypass, under 5 miles out of Selsmore, take the next junction. Restarting it to test gets nothing — AdBlue never clears on its own. Call us and say how far you drove.
A hire or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank?
You have only had the car for days. Your own car either does without AdBlue or keeps it elsewhere, so nothing told you the AdBlue cap was just beside your diesel. It can happen to anyone, anywhere around Hampshire.
What it means: the same as the scenarios above, depending on whether it's run, with one more step. Many hire and company contracts require the owner's approval for work.
Next: ring the hire company or your fleet manager first, then us — sorting it before we arrive is quicker. Stuck near Late Lounge or at Emsworth until the firm answers, your car stays switched off throughout.
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Not sure, around Selsmore
"I think so" is often the most honest as it gets. Too light, the bottle; a trace of ammonia round your filler; no clear memory of which cap. Sound familiar? The gates of Mengham Junior School in a hurry, perhaps, or a friend's drive out in Gable Head.
What it means: a little spilled round your filler does no harm to your engine. In the diesel tank, however, AdBlue harms it. If there is AdBlue in the tank, turning on your car would pull it in, and it wouldn't tell you which either.
What to do: treat it as if it got in. Do not crank it. Ring with the details: we'd rather confirm a tank free of AdBlue than drain one after the motor has run.
The common ground in every Selsmore AdBlue drain
Whatever the case, a single start applies. Filling station, driveway, The Lifeboat Inn's car park or a road by Bowls Hall — our van comes to your car, and three questions follow: which fluid, which amount, and whether it ran. On the phone, before dispatch, you hear the quote, and those answers decide the work too.
AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to certain metals used in fuel systems, so it won't wash out on its own; that's why a full flush, after the drain, counts far more here than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in after the filter has been flushed or replaced, and your car is finally checked. Not started? Then roughly half an hour on site covers most jobs.
Finally, our technicians start the engine. Before our engineers head off, it's checked to make sure it runs correctly on fresh diesel. If it's noticed soon, the car very seldom has long-term damage, and the entire job takes place where it is. For your insurer: the engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment that day, no money in advance. It is worth remembering: many insurers include misfuelling cover, and so a quick look at your documents while you wait is worthwhile.
About Selsmore
Selsmore is a coastal suburban area in Hampshire, situated near the city of Portsmouth and close to the neighbouring communities of Eastoke and Mengham. Selsmore lies at a low elevation of around 5 metres, reflecting its proximity to the sea. Selsmore is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, which is typical of many suburban areas in the South East of England.
Selsmore and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Selsmore has the same vans as the surrounding towns — South Hayling, Mengham — right across PO postcodes. Fastest of all: a PO11 9 postcode to show where you stand.
Stopped en route to Tourner Bury Plantations, or bang in the centre of Selsmore, your car remains put — there's no need to move it at all. Our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Awkward to pin down? By St Andrew's Church or a county line? Checking beats guessing, and so phone.
The one-line version
Motor never started: ring, leaving it switched off. Run already? Stop, switch off, phone. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest whatever it is, across Selsmore and Hampshire, on 0333 366 0103.