Garage put wrong fuel in pumps

MisalignedHalo

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Last week I filled my diesel car up at a garage, I was travelling home along the motorway when it started to judder. As i was travelling alone I didnt want to stop on the motorway so made it to my home town approx 80 miles before stopping to phone my partner. He obviously thought I had put the wrong fuel in but I was certain it was correct. On turning the engine back on to try and make it home it wouldnt start. I called the petrol garage that I had filled up at and they admitted that Gulf had filled their Diesel pumps with unleaded by mistake. They told me to wait and they would send a truck with a courtesy car to come and collect mine. When he arrived 2 hrs later he took my car and left me with a pile of crap to drive, I even asked him if the car was roadworthy. He took mine away, i get in the courtesy car to find no fuel in it, windows dont work and my hands sticking to the wheel it was so filthy. They said they would drop mine back later that evening.
Since having my car returned my engine light is constantly on and my car appears to still be juddering every now and again.
I would like to know if this is where their responsibility ends? I have no idea what they did to my car to ensure it was fixed, will I have long term problems? what are my rights? I know the garage are not going to be out of pocket as they told me they would be claiming from gulf for the mistake.

I would be grateful for any help:)

enfield_freddy

they have simply paid for someone to drain the fuel and probably change the fuel filter.


although the car runs , it could have been damaged


driving the car 80 miles will not have helped the situation.


you need to get the car looked at by a garage , dependant on its age , maybe the main dealers for the brand .

dogshome

Filling a diesel car with petrol usually wrecks the engine within a few miles, as you managed to drive the 80 miles home I suspect that either the wrongly filled supply tank still contained a lot of diesel so you filled your tank with a mix of fuels, or you topped up your fuel tank that still had a lot of diesel in it.

It seems has done garage did a quick fix by draining out your tank and flushing the fuel system through, ( They didn't have the car long enough to do anything else), this would be OK if you had not driven away from the pump or started the engine, but the garage knew how far you had driven and should have spent many hours examining the engine in detail

WRITE or EMAIL the garage reporting the rough running and failure to start,.advising them that you are taking the car to a Main Dealership for examination and correction of any damage caused by the mis-fueling at their expense

You don't say what car it is or how old it is, but requirement for a new engine to fitted is on the cards

colino

How much petrol did you put in when you filled it up? There isn't a diesel pump or injectors that will tolerate running on a petrol rich fuel without doing permanent damage to the system. Get back to the garage and tell them you want the misfueling repaired to manufacturers standards. (They all differ, if its a modern Merc. they recommend changing just about everything).

MisalignedHalo

Yes you are right, I had a bit of diesel in the tank before I topped up. I have a Honda Civic 09 plate that is still on finance.
I think taking it to a dealership could be the answer to get it checked out properly.

Thanks

bazster

Expect them to say that you shouldn't have driven 80 miles knowing there was a fault.

Keep_pedalling

If this is a modern common rail deisel, those 80 miles will almost certainly caused some serious (and very expensive) damage because as well as fuel deisel is required as a lubricant. You should have a claim against the fuel station for this but they may be able to reduce their liability because you contributed by continuing to drive the car for a considerable distance after realising you had a problem.

I would call your insurance company to see if this is covered, or if you have legal cover to see if they can assist in getting your repairs covered by the fuel station.

PasturesNew

If you want to compare/see the outcome of similar instances, there was a big/similar event that occurred last year: http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/11486602.UPDATE__Motorists_face_huge_repair_bills_after_filling_up_with__contaminated__diesel_at_Tesco_Branksome/

So you could google that a bit more to see who claimed what, who got what, who seems to be the best people to get help with this problem.

DCFC79

bazster wrote: »

Expect them to say that you shouldn't have driven 80 miles knowing there was a fault.

Agreed, should have stopped at the services to make the phone call.

JJ_Egan

Read your identical thread .

zaax

The engine is F**ked. The injectors are messed up, the heads would have over headed; and the engine block could be warped. Get a full independent written assessment, as you may have to go to court