Contaminated Diesel - big repair bill!!

Alfrescodave

Are you any nearer getting your fuel tested ? Until you have documented data that shows you filled up with "contaminated" diesel you will not achieve anything other than an exchange of letters. Tesco are playing the time wasting game hoping that you will eventually give up and go away. Its down to you to move this complaint forward

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

So you are going to continue to spout what you think.

Get the fuel tested and get evidence.

I am sure Tesco will be happy to sue you for damages if you are running around claiming their fuel is contaminated and it isnt

EssexHebridean

1984ReturnsForReal wrote: »

silicon????

Silicon running through a diesel engine tends to bung it up completely - and may well have necessitated a complete rebuild which would have been substantially more than the OP's £500.

Clio tanks ARE bigger than you expect - mine (same age as OP's exactly, and also a 1.5d) will cheerfully take £50 worth from a quarter of a tank and the OP's was lower than that. I only don't run mine to the light because I do a lot of motorway driving and the "BEEP!" that goes with the light makes me jump out of my skin every time!

LinasPilibaitisisbatman - you've felt the need to post on this thread, being downright rude each time. I also find it quite rich that you are whinging about the OP claiming fault to Tesco, yet you are quite happy to level accusations at her. You clearly have an axe to grind somewhere along the line, I just wish you'd take it elsewhere!

Ms_Brush

Trying to fund out where to get it tested independently - not the sort of thing I know anything about... and as I also work long hours havnt had a huge amount of time to find out either.

Anyone got any ideas?

The sample is definately not diesel, so that is a bit of a no-brainer, just need to know what it actually is. Apparently Trading Standards deal directly with the retailers and businesses, and if they test the sample it will be for their purposes and I wont necessarily be told the outcome of this. It is Consumer Direct who are the public facing organisation who I spoke to initially. Their advice was to complain directly to tesco and let them pay for the fuel testing!

I cant see how Tesco can sue me for damages when they have had many publicised cases of bad fuel over the last few years - they are not exactly squeaky clean are they?

Lemonade_Pockets

Can i just point out that the Fuel tank on a Clio is 55l !!!!!

Therefore all calculations based on a 50l have been futile.

Depending on the price there could of easily been circa a gallon left in the car.

Ms_Brush

Yes, possibly.

I paid £53 for the stuff that went into the car, and I got 20 miles from the petrol station before it broke down - but it was running badly for the whole of that journey.

Given that I was going to an evening meeting with a bunch of doctors, it was rush hour, and I was heading towards the M25, not very quickly, I noticed that it wasnt quite 'right' but didnt worry about it at the time. It was only after the meeting at 10.30pm, when I was heading off the M25 onto the A12 that the car broke down that I realised that I had a problem. At the time, I thought it was electronic, as I had an electronic failure on my previous car that did much the same thing. Thats why I limped the car home and took it to the dealer the next morning - it probably took them a while to find it because they were looking at the electronics and I hadnt mentioned that I had just filled the tank up...

EssexHebridean

There are companies that specialise in diesel testing. If I get the chance I will look up some details at work tomorrow and post back for you. One thing you could try is calling a local company to you who hire out generators - they will almost certainly have had cause to have diesel tested for contamination / infection, and may be able to put you on to someone who will then supply you with a kit - basically a pipette and clean container - for you to send a sample off.

Alfrescodave

Although Trading Standards do not appear to be helping you much, can they not recommend a test laboratory that they use for similar disputes even if you have to initially pay for the testing yourself. Hopefully if the evidence is in your favour then Tesco would re-imburse you for the engine repair + testing costs

Ms_Brush

Thank you for this - that would really help a lot.

Until last week I had no idea that there was any possible need to test fuel, I naively thought it was all the same, and did what it says on the tin and was just different prices depending where you go to fill up! Being a real girl, if the car works, everything is fine - if it doesnt I'm in trouble. Thats why I got married - this sort of stuff is Hubby's department!

As I say, this is not the sort of thing I know anything about, so to be honest because it wasnt volunteered, I didnt think of asking the petrol man from trading standards about where I could get it tested.

How do you get a sample back to a lab - do you have to take it there? Thought it would be a dangerous thing to send off in the post - I didnt think you could post anything chemical and maybe explosive??

Alfrescodave

When the major oil companies receive complaints regarding their fuel the process is to understand the size and complexity of the problem. This involves testing the customer's supplied problem fuel and if necessary sampling and testing the fuel from the service station that supplied the customer.

In your situation, my expectation would be for Tesco to request your fuel sample for analysis. Obviously Tesco do not manufacture diesel themselves but purchase it from the major oil companies and they also have a responsibility for investigating your problem.
It really is a case of you "pestering" Tesco for immediate action/ response to your problem. Ask to speak to their product quality contact (assuming they have one), ask them where they would like the fuel sample sent, or will they tell you who supplied the fuel -the oil companies are more likely to react to a product quality complaint than Tesco. You really need to get "under their skin" otherwise it will just drag on and on.