Is this caused by Contaminated Diesel?

gimpotronitus

Hi,

Last Friday I filled up my car with Diesel from a well know supermarket fuel retailer in Dundrum. I drove the car home and then on Saturday morning the car would not start. I drive a 03 BMW 320D and it has never had problems before. When I turn the key, the engine "turns over" but does not start. This surely has to point to either it being starved of fuel or contaminated fuel? I am not an expert so obviously I could be completely wrong here.

The car was towed to a garage who basically said they could find nothing wrong and also they didn't have the proper equipment to further diagnose the problem and recommended I bring it to a Main Dealer.

Any ideas?

thanks.

craichoe

gimpotronitus wrote: »

Hi,

Last Friday I filled up my car with Diesel from a well know supermarket fuel retailer in Dundrum. I drove the car home and then on Saturday morning the car would not start. I drive a 03 BMW 320D and it has never had problems before. When I turn the key, the engine "turns over" but does not start. This surely has to point to either it being starved of fuel or contaminated fuel? I am not an expert so obviously I could be completely wrong here.

The car was towed to a garage who basically said they could find nothing wrong and also they didn't have the proper equipment to further diagnose the problem and recommended I bring it to a Main Dealer.

Any ideas?

thanks.

It could be anything, you fill it with diesel all the time, it could be completely unrelated. Only a diagnostic will give you more information.

JHMEG

Co-incidentally I bought petrol in a well known supermarket last Thursday and now I have a car firing on 3 cylinders as one injector is blocked.

L1011

I stopped buying petrol in a well known supermarket when I noticed my car stopped running like a bag of hammers every time I went home (and beyond the reach of said supermarkets forecourts)...

cabrwab

the well known supermarket did have a terrible reputation recently in England soooo, why are we still using it?
maybe cheaper, but not much when you consider the queing you've got to do to get to it!

Get to the main dealer, you've got to now anyway let us know how you get on.
Was the car really empty before you filled up? Just if it was maybe the dirt in the tank too.

captainosull

Pre-supply fuel pump, sits under the car where the passenger seat would be. Not too uncommon on e46 & e39 diesels. A tap with a small hammer of the pump, while someone is cranking over the car will reveal all

Jip

cabrwab wrote: »

the well known supermarket did have a terrible reputation recently in England soooo, why are we still using it?

It wasn't one supermarket, it was a number of different ones. I can't remember the exact details at the moment but it was restricited to one area of England and was something to do with the suppliers/refinery rather than the supermarkets.

Obviously people are talking about Tesco but isn't there stuff the same as what you get in Statoil/Topaz or someone similar ?

Martron

in england it was contaminated with silicone

L1011

Jip wrote: »

Obviously people are talking about Tesco but isn't there stuff the same as what you get in Statoil/Topaz or someone similar ?

Same tankers. Doesn't mean its the same fuel. Wincanton just acquired the Statoil branded tankers - and are repainting them it seems. Was a Wincanton branded tanker filling up Tesco Maynooth last night.

Robbo

captainosull wrote: »

Pre-supply fuel pump, sits under the car where the passenger seat would be. Not too uncommon on e46 & e39 diesels. A tap with a small hammer of the pump, while someone is cranking over the car will reveal all

I second that. I recently had one let go in an e46 diesel.

JHMEG

MYOB wrote: »

Same tankers. Doesn't mean its the same fuel.

This is true, but doesn't mean it's different either.

ambro25

For what it's worth, the main dealer we have been using in mainland UK (so not really biased as regards fuel supplier in IE) for years for servicing our cars, confirmed to us that we should not use petrol sold by "that particularly well-known retailer" at Dundrum on a regular basis anymore, as it was the reason for the sometimes-fluctuating engine timing, and "supermarket fuel" was generally to be avoided (or at least used very infrequently) for cars with tuned engines. This problem is very well-known to Subaru and Mitsubishi dealers.

BeardyGit

My 11 year old Volvo runs just great on anything except Topaz/Tesco & Maxol fuels....It's just not worth the pittance of a saving you make.

testicle

MYOB wrote: »

Same tankers. Doesn't mean its the same fuel. Wincanton just acquired the Statoil branded tankers - and are repainting them it seems. Was a Wincanton branded tanker filling up Tesco Maynooth last night.

I was under the impression that all the fuel in this country came from the same source?

Gary ITR

JHMEG wrote: »

Co-incidentally I bought petrol in a well known supermarket last Thursday and now I have a car firing on 3 cylinders as one injector is blocked.

Me too, about 50 miles after filling up at a well known supermarket also.

The fuel being delivered could be perfect but the pumps/tanks may not be maintained properly. All forecourts have a certain amount of moisture in their tanks, if untreated it leads to a build up of mould apparently. A maxol rep told me this when I was chatting to one last week

L1011

testicle wrote: »

I was under the impression that all the fuel in this country came from the same source?

Some is imported as crude and refined in Whitegate, some is imported as finished products. That for a start messes that up...

Also, theres vast differences in detergents and additives used between different branded firms.

JHMEG

Onkle wrote: »

Me too, about 50 miles after filling up at a well known supermarket also

Have you an actual injector blocked tho? I have, and will be tackling it Thursday evening...

Gary ITR

Yep, it's a mk2 Golf GTI and can be picky at the best of times, now seems like she's not getting fuel on 1 injector at low revs. Seems to be fine at higher revs so there's a clog somewhere