AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Silvertown: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page down for now, keep the ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor has not turned, it's emptied and thoroughly purged where the car sits around Silvertown. Here before the event? In that case the rest explains why it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
No single fluid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels around Silvertown and Docklands carry, with diesel for your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Silvertown
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
On a driveway off North Woolwich Road before work, or in the car park at Fox@Connaught heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Silvertown or out in Custom House.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Silvertown forecourt or a driveway out in Cyprus, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you pick up a rental or company car — at Surrey Quays's car park, say — rather than once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever in Greater London, use this routine.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and not rushed by Thames Road on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Finish when the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour slowly using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap, and look again — making sure your diesel filler remained shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Silvertown: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help roll the car away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Shell, the Asda or somewhere else. On your own drive around Silvertown? So your car stays put.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M11 — under 10 miles out of Silvertown — at the first junction. Mileage counts — a short hop across Silvertown makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to London — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival in Silvertown, and what takes place next
Wherever the car came to rest, whether by Drew Primary School, beside Brick Lane Music Hall Mural or at home, our van travels to it. Both the work and our quote depend on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. The quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then the tank is emptied and the system cleaned thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. That is why it matters more. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. Next our technicians start the engine and check it runs correctly before we leave.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run take roughly half an hour once we are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Silvertown and where it is
Silvertown is a suburban area in the London Borough of Newham, situated on the north bank of the Thames River. Silvertown sits at a low elevation of around 1 metre, adjacent to the Custom House and North Woolwich areas. Silvertown is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and its proximity to central London, being approximately 7.2 miles from the city centre. Silvertown is also near the nearby places of New Charlton and the River Thames
AdBlue drains about Silvertown, and Greater London beyond
As a residential suburb, Silvertown has the same vans as surrounding areas — North Woolwich, New Charlton — right across E postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting E16 2 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving your car isn't needed. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Bombardier Beetle Relocation Area, a side street close to Athena: we drain the vehicle where it sits. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Rev Ian Harper, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
In short, for Silvertown people
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Greater London.