<SNIP> Contaminated Diesel

rossithelegend

Hi All, having some issues and looking to get a bit of advice of anyone who may have had a similar problem. Here goes -
We shop in <SNIP> and top up our diesel there, a tank does us 2 weeks. On Friday the 8th my wife topped up she had 60 miles in the tank before she topped up and she topped it to the brim. She drove car home and parked it up, it stayed there all weekend. On Monday, Tues and Wednesday the car drove 130 miles in total but started to get sluggish on the Wednesday. Thursday my wife reversed out of the drive and the car died. Had it towed to garage, they asked had we put petrol in it. We said no and had receipt to show that it was diesel we put in it. The garage out a direct feed of diesel in the car and it ran fine, so they drained the tank and put €25 of new diesel in, problem solved car starts first time. though it is now very smokey. Turns out we had contaminated diesel from <SNIP> We reported the problem back to <SNIP> who have said there is nothing they can do even though we have a receipt clearly stating diesel was bought and the receipt for the topup before and a report from the garage stating what the issue was. I have no lodged a claim in the small claims court but I was wondering has anyone else had the same problems or similar ones, <SNIP> have told me we are the only ones who have complained but I have heard they had probs in Claremorris and other places and always use the same story. I have checked the net and this is a hugre prob with them in the UK. I know how this prob would affect people would depend on the amount of fuel they top up by and how much was in the car beforehand but I am sure there had to be someone.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

wmpdd3

Did the store start an investigation, take a sample and a statement from you?

If not, get this done.

athtrasna

There was a lengthy thread on here about such a thing a few weeks ago, dating back since before Christmas but updated with sample analysis etc. Try doing a search for contaminated fuel and you should find it. The store name was snipped by mods but it's pretty identifiable as to the chain involved.

dudara

You will need to the diesel analysed in order to prove for certain that it was contaminated.

rossithelegend

Does anyone know where I could get the diesel tested here? IT is definitely contaminated as soon as we put a direct feed onto the car it ran so that proved it was the diesel that was trhe prob as we hadn't even drained the tank or changed the fuel filter at that stage. The store wouldn't even take a statement from us the manager took a few notes in his book but said there was nothing they could do, very unhelpful!

rossithelegend

Thanks, I had a look back there are actually a few relating to similar probs but not a lot go into detail, maybe we will be the guinea pig but I'm determined to see this through to a resolution. Especially considering we USE (after theis incident) shop in the same store and they were still so unhelpful. We could prove from our clubcard that we top our diesel there every 2 weeks and shop there once a week you think they may have been a little more customer orientated!

hfallada

Did you call revenue. Could it be washed diesel. Agricultural diesel with the green dye removed which also removes the lubricants and cause the engines not to run smoothly and sometimes destroys the engine

sandin

This comes up regularly and I've yet to see someone find any proof its the diesel theyvhad just purchased.
It is of course the easiest place to blame but a quick search online will give you plenty of other reasons.

Think that an undetground tank holds upnto 40000 litres. Average purchase is about 30 litres. A busy garage will have new delivery every 3 days. Are there 1200+ motorists in the area with car problems? Cos if the diesel wsd dirty then thats the approx number of cars that got thst diesel.

You say there was just 60km yo empty before you filled? I think there's the answer. There will always br a tiny biy of sediment in fuel. It builds up. If you dont regularly run vlose to empty they may be more than is good and with only 2 litres or so left yhen dirty fuel that is due to driving on last bit of fuel has got into the engine and needs to be cleared out.

If you have an oil tank at home you will notice it is at a slight angle away from the feeder pipe - this pushes sediment away from getting into your boiler system.

So Google it and look at all the other possibilities before jumping to an answer that in reality just cannot be true - unless of course you have loads of broken down cars in the area.

rossithelegend

Without touching anything the garage placed a direct line of diesel onto the car and it ran fine, it was 60 miles in the tank not km and that is a regular occurrence as we top up every 2 weeks and usually do the same milage. There have been lots of issues with contaminated diesel and this company in the uk and I have heard a number of them from here too. The amount of people affected will depend on a number of variables such as how much fuel was in the car when they topped up or how much they topped up by. I am 100% confident it is the diesel that's the problem and the fact that the car started again once a direct feed was put onto it would confirm it.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Look, if it was contaminated fuel - and so bad as to have such an immediate affect - then the garage would have sold thousands of litres of it to hundreds of motorists. They would be inundated with complaints. Most likely sediment in your tank. Sixty miles left is what? Six or seven litres max? That's in a sixty litre tank. I would never let it run that low. You'll find it hard to prove anything against the garage but I'd certainly ask them if they had received any feedback from other customers.

dudara

Definitely talk to Revenue too - if there were issues with other motorists, then they would know about it.

rossithelegend

Boone Alive Blanket wrote: »

Look, if it was contaminated fuel - and so bad as to have such an immediate affect - then the garage would have sold thousands of litres of it to hundreds of motorists. They would be inundated with complaints. Most likely sediment in your tank. Sixty miles left is what? Six or seven litres max? That's in a sixty litre tank. I would never let it run that low. You'll find it hard to prove anything against the garage but I'd certainly ask them if they had received any feedback from other customers.

Did you read the post, it did not have an immediate effect as there was 60 miles of diesel left in the tank which is a regular occurrence on this car as we top up every 2 weeks and normally do the same milage. The problem was not sediment in the tank and that has been confirmed by the garage who solved the problem as said earlier the direct line being placed on the tank and it started straight away. It's a 53 Liter tank in the car and the diesel has been confirmed as contaminated the reason I am on this thread is to see if anyone else has had similar probs and I have found plenty of cases in the uk and in ireland from the same retailer who told people they were the only ones affected when it has since been unearthed they clearly were not.

rossithelegend

http://www.huntspost.co.uk/news/latest-news/driver_complains_of_contaminated_diesel_from_tesco_petrol_station_1_1223323

wmpdd3

There is a process that the store is supposed to follow, ring customer service and make a complaint, they will get the store to get the ball rolling.

Google the phone number for customer service.

You will either be dealing with the duty manager or the petrol station manager.

The store will arrange for testing with an independent (not the supplier) tester. They will take a few samples and give one to you. Results will be back in 2 weeks with a full report.

It's up to you if you want to get your 2 samples tested independently too, but in my experience both reports usually come back identical.


RE: link, totally different set up in Ireland, different suppliers and different company ensuring the upkeep of hte service station but the testing system is the same one used as trading standards.

Interesting cold weather was mentioned again, as it was to the OP in the last thread. Is there an issue with diesel in the cold?

Del2005

wmpdd3 wrote: »

Is there an issue with diesel in the cold?

Yes, but it should be treated not to have issues.

rossithelegend wrote: »

Did you read the post, it did not have an immediate effect as there was 60 miles of diesel left in the tank which is a regular occurrence on this car as we top up every 2 weeks and normally do the same milage. The problem was not sediment in the tank and that has been confirmed by the garage who solved the problem as said earlier the direct line being placed on the tank and it started straight away. It's a 53 Liter tank in the car and the diesel has been confirmed as contaminated the reason I am on this thread is to see if anyone else has had similar probs and I have found plenty of cases in the uk and in ireland from the same retailer who told people they were the only ones affected when it has since been unearthed they clearly were not.

The garage bypassed the tank and got it going. They then drained the tank and replaced the fuel. The drain in the tank is at the very bottom so every bit of derbies that was in your car has now contaminated the diesel that was removed.

Letting a tank get that low regularly isn't good and it could have been a cumulative issue. As has been posted if they where selling dodgy diesel than you'd have heard more complaints, Joe would be loving it. Not saying it wasn't bad diesel but 130 miles doesn't ad up to bad diesel, modern cars won't run that far on bad diesel some won't even leave the forecourt. You could have got a blockage in your lines and the work done by the garage cleared it.

sandin

Diesel for all garages come from the same place. The various companies that sell tge fuel DO NOT make it. Therefore a contamination woul affect THOUSANDS Of cars.

You say it was "confirmed as contaminated" - sorry total bs. A local garage mechanic dies not have that type of experience.

You say there are plenty of stories abiut contamination in uk - more bs. The was one a few years back, it made the main bbc news. Everything else is people lkje yoh jumping to the easuest but very flawed solution.

Btw before you say anything, I have no connection with any part of fuel selling in Ireland, butkdo have an understanding in the petrochemical area, and I can say tge chancez of a normal retail garage selling fuel, assuming it is not washed, will not be responsible for the issue.

wmpdd3

Mechanics seem to hint that the issue is in the tanks in the garage rather than the quality of the diesel. The tanks do have a maintenance shedule, that's why a sample is taken from the pump the customer used.

IF a retailer does supply a faulty item they are responsible for it. The fact that they may have been supplied with a faulty product is between the retailer and the supplier, nothing to do with the customer.