Contaminated Diesel - car

annandpeter

Well - our Hyundai was running rough and after some investigation by mechanic etc we have the worst fuel contamination the experts in castlebar have ever seen. They are even concerned that the test they ran has 'upset' their machine. We have only filled up in the Castlebar/Louisburgh areas. Anyone had similar problems lately? May/June 2011? Thanks

Paulw

Contamination could have come from any of the places you filled up. At this stage, you would have no way to prove which one it was.

ejmaztec

It could even be sabotage if the locking cap wasn't secure.

annandpeter

Agree completely. Although it would be good to know for the future. Thanks.

dudara

Moved to the Mayo forum. You may get more targeted responses there.

dudara

Samhain

I have heard that some of the forecourts around mayo are selling petrol and diesel are actually selling "low grade" fuel or they are mixing the grades. Not sure how much truth there is in this though....anyone else hear this?

irishgeo

Samhain wrote: »

I have heard that some of the forecourts around mayo are selling petrol and diesel are actually selling "low grade" fuel or they are mixing the grades. Not sure how much truth there is in this though....anyone else hear this?

the fuel all tesco gets is a lower grade fuel than the the topaz and texaco etc get, that not to say its not good or is bad fuel but its not as high quality as the reconsigned fuel company forecourts.

Bob the Builder

My brother had the same problem with <snip>. Filled up there on the way to Dublin, was on the yellow light, filled his tank to the top with Diesel. By the time he got to Castlebar, car began spluttering and chugging along. Made it Athlone with the car until he could go no more. Pulled in on the side of the motorway.

Called the local garage, they came out, and drained all his fuel and gave him fresh fuel and voila, that was the problem. There was air in the fuel coming out as well and water bubbles.

Went back to <snip>, they more or less admitted what had happened but pulled back on any sort of compensation without proof. €60 and an hour sitting on the motorway wasted, just like that.

biko

I've removed a garage name, just PM the poster if you're interested.
This is for legal reasons. Please refrain from mention specific garages, ask people to PM for name instead.

annandpeter

Bob the Builder wrote: »

My brother had the same problem with <snip>. Filled up there on the way to Dublin, was on the yellow light, filled his tank to the top with Diesel. By the time he got to Castlebar, car began spluttering and chugging along. Made it Athlone with the car until he could go no more. Pulled in on the side of the motorway.

Called the local garage, they came out, and drained all his fuel and gave him fresh fuel and voila, that was the problem. There was air in the fuel coming out as well and water bubbles.

Went back to <snip>, they more or less admitted what had happened but pulled back on any sort of compensation without proof. €60 and an hour sitting on the motorway wasted, just like that.

Well - just had a bill for cleaning the injectors and something called ecr ? - €580!!!!! Aaarrrgggghh. This is without the mechanics bill. The car has had to be stripped to remove even the fuel tank . . . a lot of work. Still have no idea where we've picked it up from. There seems to be no problem with the fuel tank itself . . . suppose will just have to pay up and then try to forget it. Bit of a bummer though. Thanks for all posts.

The Nutty M

annandpeter wrote: »

Well - just had a bill for cleaning the injectors and something called ecr ? - €580!!!!! Aaarrrgggghh. This is without the mechanics bill. The car has had to be stripped to remove even the fuel tank . . . a lot of work. Still have no idea where we've picked it up from. There seems to be no problem with the fuel tank itself . . . suppose will just have to pay up and then try to forget it. Bit of a bummer though. Thanks for all posts.

Would you have got a fill of diesel in Roscommon anytime recently by any chance?

annandpeter

No - we've only used Maxol lately. However there was a woman on Mid-West who had filled up with contaminated fuel in Roscommon - a Maxol garage too. Seems as though our problem has arisen because we let the tank run really low & also filled up when there was also a tanker on the forecourt pumping out into the holdign tank - may have stirred up all sorts of crap. Expensive business - looks like our bill will eventually hit €1k - about a third of the cars value . . .

steph1

Crikey :eek:

annandpeter

Spoke to a motoring organisation to see if they had any confirmed reports of local problems but seems to be none on a 'proven' scale. They gave me the following advice (along the lines of closing the stable door once the horse has bolted) - anyway -
a) do not let your tank run down more than a quarter full.
b) do not fill when there is a tanker on the forecort
c) change your fuel filter regularly - possible to do yourself & reasonably cheap
d) have a locking cap - not just the sort you open from inside the car

We may get the car back today . . . and the final bill.

Anyway - as one of the posts rightly said - its extremely diffiult to get any sort of recompense even if the garage/supplier had been at fault. Seems with the 'new' type of diesel on sale since Jan 2011 garages should be more particular with their housekeeping - re water filters etc!

Bob the Builder

I work in a Texoil garage in Mayo. Whilst I would agree with what has been said about the oil trucks on the forecourt. Most of the uplifts from the filling station that i work in take place from one dedicated fuel tank we have buried underground. Therefore, the oil truck rarely intervenes with the work of the filling stations other activities.

However, in a filling station where the amount of available space for underground tank storage is low, most filling stations only have two fifteen thousand litre tanks (unleaded and derv diesel). Its on these smaller forecourts that most of the likely contamination occurs. And the likelihood of contamination of a fuel tank in a smaller garage is increased when they have a kerosene tank there as well.

Also, as an aside, I would definitely say that in Winter time, be careful about getting kerosene in a filling station that has had fuel uplifted or dropped off, as it is usually a smaller tank for the kerosene and with less turnover of fuel, easier to contaminate, even though the possible consequences are far less than that of motor fuel.