100 litres of dirty diesel, very frustrating....

Michael,

Have heard of many successful ones they paid for the lot and you would not be the only one....

Was it a BP servo??

Hi Michael,

My Brother about 2 years back had an issue with his diesel freelander. Car just stopped in the street shortly after filling it up at an Ampol servo in Sydney. Got it back to dealer, and they found about 40L water in the tank!!!

Engine needed full rebuild, and injectors and pump too, was a $9000 job.
He went to the servo and complained, they got the refinery chemists to come and see his car and take fuel samples from it. They determined that the tanks at the servo filled with water as some idiot had taken the dips out and forgot to put the lid back on and it was raining heavily for a few days before he filled it up at that servo.
They subsequently paid in full for the repairs, and paid for a hire car for 3 weeks while his car was repaired with no fuss whatsoever.

Hope you experience the same level of professionalism from BP.
Cheers,
Wayne

Yep, i had a fairlane that copped a tank full of watery crud, only took a short while to kill the fuel pump , got a workshop to pull the tank etc, while i got on to the customer service dept and initiated a claim, had to speak to their insurance people etc. but as i had all the details of which pump and when and reciepts etc. it went fairly well. I had to sign a hush hush agreement re the payout, but suffice to say their logo is green..... Apparently someone stuck a hose into the fill point at the servo, or so they claimed.

Get onto their customer care line asap and get the wheels in motion.

Hi Michael,

I hope it all works out well for you and that one of the other parties plays ball in getting the issue resolved.

The one good point however is that your engine management system alerted you to soemthing being wrong.

I know these systems have their critics but if they are working correctly, they can help prevent serious damage. You have to wonder if you weren't alerted to something not being right, how far you might have gone and what damage could have been done.

Anyway I hope it all works out OK for you.

Cheers

Brian

Hello Michael,
Sorry to hear of your bad luck.
While talking to a chap I know at my local Nissan dealers here in Busselton, he told me they had a Rodeo in the workshop( they're GMH dealers as well) that had picked up a tank of dirty diesel and stuffed the pump, $7000 to get the vehicle right and he didn't have a receipt for the rotten fuel. He also didn't have the 7 grand for the bill so apparently the vehicle was just sitting there.
Haven't heard the outcome.
Pays to either run an account or at least keep receipts.
Hopefully, you can get the companies involved to pay for their mistakes.
Best of luck
Rob

Sounds like a really good argument for using a fuel card. Mine is a leased vehicle and i fill up using Shellcard. But even for private users you can get a fuelcard account with Shell or Caltex etc.

Gives you a very good record of where and when you got fuel and will help support claims for dodgy fuel. Even credit card slips will provide some evidence. Harder to do if you just pay cash and maybe don't keep receipts.

As a side issue, what is peoples experience with using fuel cards in more isolated areas? Are there still a lot of places that are cash only???

Cheers
Muddy

Micheal

I had a very similar experience about 4 months ago with my 8 month old TD Pajero. I filled up with 86 litres in my 90 litre tank at a local Metro service station and the engine started coughing and spluttering after about 2-3km. Luckily I wasn’t far from home and managed to limp home. The fuel was paid for on credit card and I also had a copy of the tax invoice for the purchase. The very first thing I did was call the service station and inform them of the problem and send off a fax the next day confirming the sequence of events and my telephone conversation.

After having the fuel tank flushed on 2 different within 2 days of the incident occasions by 2 separate mechanics the car still ran like a dog and I ended up taking it to the local Mitsubishi dealer to have the problem finally resolved. One moth and $9500 later - new fuel pump filters, remove tank from car and professionally cleaned etc etc the car is as good as new. During this period I constantly sent faxes off to the service station and their head office in Sydney informing them of the costs which were being incurred. The station and head office tried stonewalling me to the point where they denied ever receiving my faxes. At this point I blew up and threatened to go to the media and the Department of Fair Trading who it turns out have a specific hotline for reporting dirty fuel. At this point the fuel company started to come good and requested copies of invoices etc. After having seen their true colours I was reluctant to proceed any further with the service station and contacted my insurance company.

The insurance company AAMI were excellent and after providing them with a sample of the fuel they took over the repairs to my vehicle and paid the associated costs (apart form the cost of the tank of the dirty fuel, which I gladly paid for under the circumstances). Apparently if you can prove where you picked up the dirty fuel and have a sample it is all covered by insurance as technically it is damage to your vehicle by a third party. In retrospect I wish I had contacted the insurance company first and saved myself all of the hassle.

Good luck and I hope this has been of help.

Thanks guys for the feedback and the positive posts, i saw the sample of the fuel, if you could call it that, it looks like brown vinegar on the bottom and almost clear liquid on the top, A little to the aqua colour to be exact on top, it cant be just water because of the heavy rain over the last few weeks. Nothing i have ever seen looks that sinister. Anyway it will get fixed and someone else will pay but it turns you of a vehicle you feel totally comfortable with in regards to reliability. Thanks again everyone, i will keep you all posted about the vehicle and the eventual outcome. Best regards Michael.