Little Ilford: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause reading a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where your car stands around Little Ilford, is usually what it takes when caught before your motor runs. Here before the event? Then what follows explains how it comes about and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels around Little Ilford and Loxford carry, with diesel feeding the motor. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
There is a filler for each tank. Plenty of cars have a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Little Ilford
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off St Winefride's Avenue before work, or in the car park at William the Conqueror on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: a new vehicle.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as easily, and once the pour starts, nothing halts it. It's seconds, whether in Manor Park or bang in the heart of Little Ilford.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Barking Wharf Square or a forecourt in Little Ilford.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you collect a rental or fleet car — at Woodgrange Park's car park, perhaps — not once the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever around Greater London, follow this routine.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor off, and not in a rush by Little Ilford Lane on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Finish once the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly using its own spout.
- Shut the cap, and look again — making sure your diesel cap remained closed throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Little Ilford already?
Short list, then. Top of that: the motor remains unstarted. Leave the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts your fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Shell, Esso or another forecourt will normally help pushing the car clear if you ask. Your own drive in Little Ilford is the place it stays.
Already run? Stop when it is sensible, then turn off. The next exit is where to leave when you're on the M11, under 3 miles from Little Ilford. A short hop across Little Ilford is a smaller job than a run towards London, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians arrive around Little Ilford, what happens?
Outside St Winefride's RC Primary School, close to Church of St. Mary the Virgin or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. The replies settle the work and our price, so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run. During the phone call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of anything else.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of that clears out unaided, no matter how long it is left. The filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of your car. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Unrun cars mostly need a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Little Ilford
Little Ilford is a suburban area in the London Borough of Newham, situated on the banks of the River Roding at an elevation of around 9 metres. Little Ilford lies approximately 8.6 miles east of central London and is close to nearby places such as Manor Park and Ilford. Little Ilford has a predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting its development as a residential area. Little Ilford is also near Plashet, with which it shares some local amenities.
Little Ilford and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Plashet and Ilford are among the towns near Little Ilford, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout E postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting E12 6.
Moving your car is not necessary. Anywhere it stands — beside St Stephens Catholic Church, in a layby en route to Hathaway Crescent Park, at home — that is where it gets emptied. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of London Sri Murugan Temple, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Little Ilford motorists: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, anywhere across Greater London: keep the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.