West Silloth: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave the motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, if your motor has not run, it is emptied and fully rinsed where your car sits around West Silloth. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it occurs and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one fluid but two: that's how many modern diesels around West Silloth and Blitterlees carry, with diesel feeding the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Plenty of motors share a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around West Silloth
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Greenrow Meadows, perhaps outside Cumberland Inn on the way home that evening.
New-to-you vehicles are second, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and after the tip starts, nothing halts it. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Greenrow or bang in the heart of West Silloth.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around West Silloth or a drive out in East Causewayhead. A few seconds, no more.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives when the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Aspatria? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Cumbria that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of B5300.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both share a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip slowly through its built-in spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Stage five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in West Silloth already?
Do not start the engine: that is how the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so leave it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the another forecourt nearby, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump. Your own drive in West Silloth is the place it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Leave the A74(M) — under 15 miles out of West Silloth — at the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across West Silloth is smaller a job than a run of under 25 miles towards Carlisle, so say.
When our technicians arrive in West Silloth, what happens?
By Silloth Primary School, close to Greenrow Pentecostal Church or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. The answers decide this work and the price, and so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run. You hear that price by phone, before anybody heads out.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, after the tank is emptied. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. After the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then your car gets tested. The motor is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs smoothly, all before we go.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About West Silloth and where it is
West Silloth is a small suburban area on the coast of Cumbria, situated near the town of Silloth and close to the villages of Greenrow and West Causewayhead. West Silloth sits at a low elevation of around 11 metres, looking out over the coastal landscape. West Silloth has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. West Silloth is located approximately 18 miles from Carlisle, the nearest city.
AdBlue drains in West Silloth and across Cumbria
Over CA postcodes, the teams covering West Silloth — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Silloth and West Causewayhead among them. A postcode starting CA7 4 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Silloth on Solway Golf Club, a side street close to Silloth Evangelical Free Church: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Church of Our Lady of the Assumption? Close to a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
In short, for West Silloth drivers
Tip nothing until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Cumbria, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.