Contaminated Fuel

jessrouse

Hi all,

I recently filled up my van at a garage with diesel (the tank had maybe one fifth of fuel remaining in it), and drove the van the day after next and broke down on the M25. Having waited for hours to be picked up, and eventually told by Mercedes that the van would have to go back to the shop to be fixed.

The van was left in the shop for a further 3 days when it was finally fixed, and I received a bill for nearly £4,000 as a result of contaminated fuel which had done serious damage to my engine. I had the receipt from the garage I purchased the fuel from, and a written confirmation from Mercedes regarding the cause of the damage (contaminated fuel) as well as a sample of the diesel.

I approached trading standards and they advised me to contact the garage, (Co-op), and make a claim. Having all of these documents I thought this would be relatively straight forward, but 4 weeks later I have just received a letter from the Co-op negating claim for the damage caused by the fuel.

I have spoken to trading standards again and they suggested writing them a letter giving them 7 days to reconsider and if they don't taking it to the small claims court.

I just wondered how realistic this is and whether anyone has succeeded in these types of cases? It’s such a HUGE amount of money to us, and naively I thought this would just sort itself out for Christmas, but it seems it won't any help would be greatly received.

Jess

System

If yours is the only claim the the Co-Op has received then they are probably in a very strong position to refute your allegation that it was their fuel that was contaminated.

Normally in these situations a large number of people are affected and it will (probably) hit the local papers. If this hasn't happened and/or the Co-Op say yours is the only complaint then you need to look at other possible sources of contamination

jessrouse

Thanks for your post, unfortunately I am not aware of any other motorists that have been affected, perhaps I should contact the local paper to see whether any other people have been affected. I called up the garage to ask them directly, and they obviously said that no one else has complained but it would not be in their interest to say otherwise.

The car tank was heavily contaminated with water, so there is no doubt in mine or the mechanics mind that it is the fuel from the garage in question, the only problem is proving this fact.

SailorSam

The local trading standards may know if others have complained.
That figure of £4k seems awful high, traditionally diesel engines can often take more abuse than a petrol one, often the tank only needs draining.
I use to drive a diesel and one day filled up with petrol (my mistake) the vehicle just cut out a few miles down the road, when the Rac came to the rescue he told me it use to be common for diesel drivers to add some petrol to the tank in the winter as it did no harm, so long as there was only a bit, and it stopped the diesel from freezing.
Modern diesel of course doesn't freeze.

SailorSam

If you have found water in your tank it may have sat there for ages, then if you've one day got a bit lower than usual started to pull it through.
It may not have come from the co op

jessrouse

Thanks, unfortunately it was the level of water which caused the damage so I don't think that is the case, the reason that the amount of damage is so expensive is that the fuel pumps and injectors had to be replaced as a result of the water in the fuel, which is almost replacing the entire engine. The amount of water within the tank was probably about 30% its unreal when you see the fuel that they extracted from the engine.

The garage explained to us that this is not something that is a result of a gradual build up of water as a result of the quantity, and because of the volume of fuel that was placed into the car really this can only be a result of the recent re-fuel.

Thanks for the ealier post, I have approached our local paper, and they may run an article to see whether anyone else has been affected by this problem, which may strengthen my claim

jessrouse

I will also contact trading standards to see whether anyone else has complained, thanks

Tozer

You could also request that they provide full details of any similar complaints. If they refuse, you could, in theory, apply in Court for pre-action discovery.

System

Putting all the info together
OP filled tank up on one day and drove home.
2 days later he drove the van and it broke down on the motorway.
Garage reckon that there was 30% water in the fuel

Let's get real folks. 30% water in a fuel tank would mean that that engine is sucking pure water in after approx 2 miles after using the diesel that was in the pipework between the tank and the engine.

If it did have that much water in then you were lucky to get home from the garage and there would have been very little chance of your vehicle actually running properly the next day.

justmetoday_2

I don't know much about cars so I can't comment on water and diesel but I got contaminated fuel and as far as I know I was the only one in that instance and I still got compensation.

Details were:
Drove in to a BP right after the station had been filled up from the truck, when I first started filling up the pump acted a bit funny but then it all filled up ok. Drove off and got about 5-10 miles and then started noticing that the car acted strangely, but got home even though it got worse and worse
Day afterwards took it into the garage who found that the petrol was contaminated with little particles looking quite like rusty sand. They also gave me a sample of the contaminated fuel.

Contacted BP and at first they were quite sceptical to my claim but in the end after an investigation they agreed that it was their fault. Apparently when the tanker had filled up the station it had flushed the petrol around a bit so the rubbish that's usually stuck at the bottom was floating around, the woman that handled my claim said that it happens sometimes.

System

It is understandable that only you were affected as the particulates would probably have settled by the time the next vehicle filled up.

But if a pump has dispensed 30% water then it will not only do it for one vehicle. And, as you found, it affects the car in a very short space of time. The OP managed to drive home and then later drove on to the motorway before having problems