Your Comments

I thought my car was playing up as a result of getting water in the engine. (it was quite a big puddle)

The engine was very sluggish, I was having difficulty accelerating and it felt as if the engine wanted to cut out.

Having heard a number of reports about contaminated petrol, I thought the symptoms were similar to those I was experiencing.(I've gone to Morrison's for my fuel recently as they are the cheapest in this area)

A well known motoring journalist suggested using a premium grade petrol might alleviate the problem. I put in some BP Ultimate, which happens to be about 10p per litre more than I normally pay, and that seems to have done the trick.

I may have gotten water in the engine or I may have purchased contaminated fuel. I don't know which is right.

What I do know is that my car is running as well as it has for a long time.

I realise we are all striving to pay as little as possible for our fuel but, for the foreseeable future, I will have to pay the extra money for premium fuel until I think my engine is back to it's best.

I suspect the problems may not be contaminates in the fuel ... more likely
something has been left out!!
They do add chemicals to modify the burn properties of the fuel ... so each
and every batch of unleaded ignites and burns the same as every other batch.
If these additives are left out the fuel could burn too quickly ... modern engine management systems will correct this up to a point (by retarding the timing up to a certain preset amount).
The problem is, if the adjustement required isn't available, the engine will
not run correctly.
In fact, with the right condiitons, too much heat will pass into the exhaust manifold damaging lambda sensors ... this is what i suspect has happened
to many cars.

The cheaper the car, the more robustly unsophisticated the engine .. the more expensive the car it definitely pays in the long run to cough up the extra monies for the super. As in life, you only get what you pay for!

I run an M5 and have always used Shell Optimax (now rebranded Vpower) and occaisionally BP Ultimate. Once trying BP Ultimate 106, but at 2.42 a litre not an economic option! I got one hiccup last Sunday when still cold but its seems ok now 98 RON is recommended by BMW for my car and it returns about 3 to 4 mgg better than using standard fuel. I'd recommend a try of the Ultimate 106 as it seems to make things better even afterwards when I reverted to "normal" Optimax, its not just the RON but also the other "cleaning" additives that seem to help things work better.

I have experienced the same problems stalling, cutting out .juddering etc over the last few days,I have now got to replace the lambda sensor as it is US! I filled up today with BP ultimate and disconnected the lambda sensor car now runs quite well you shouldn,t need to replace anything else as it should have only burnt this sensor out. you don,t need to be a mechanic and should be able to pick one up for around £20-£50 depending on make of car. Look on e-bay there are loads!

My Beetle was suffering from the juddering issues this week. Like other posters I assumed it was problems from going through large puddles. Then it wouldn't start at all. The aa guy said the engine had flooded and showed me how to restart it. same thing happened the next day and I managed to get it going but now the engine light is warning me to get it checked. Garage are coming to take it tomorrow (I only have it 4 weeks). I filled up at Tescos last week and am convinced it;s the fuel.

I understand they are refunding the cost of the fuel, but are they going to pay costs of engine repairs too?

I pulled into a BP station on the A38 near newton Abbott in Devon having travelled 200 problem-free miles from Oxfordshire. I dispensed £25 of unleaded into my brand new car and drove to the accelleration lane where I waited for a gap in the traffic. When there was a gap in the traffic, I stamped my foot on the accellerator pedal and........... I went nowhere - my engine had cut out. I pushed my car onto the verge, called the AA and waited. The AA patrolman soon arrived and, despite his best efforts, he was unble to fix or diagnose the problem. My car was loaded onto a recovery truck and taken to a francised dealer in Plymouth. Whilst I was being relayed to Plymouth I noted another broken down, brand new car about 400 metres along the road being loaded onto a RAC wagon (this was a significant, crucial observation). The folowing day, I received a telephone call from the dealer who broke the news that my fuel was contaminated. I concluded, quite reasonably, that the BP petrol was contaminated but realised that I may have a problem in proving it - then I remembered the RAC wagon. I immediately made two telephone calls; the first to the BP site to warn them that they were selling contaminated petrol, the second to the RAC. The RAC were very helpful and, via their records, were able to put their member in touch with me and guess what? You guessed it - the driver had just filled up from the same BP station and that his petrol was also contaminated. I borrowed a friend's car and reattended the BP station three days later only to see that they were still selling fuel from the same pump. I challenged the proprietor who arrogantly stated that there was nothing wrong with his fuel. I persuaded him to fill a new can with petrol from the pump I had used and asked him to decant it into a new bucket. Despite there being a thick, black sediment he did not acknowledge that there was a problem. I told him that I was holding him responsible for my vehicle's £400+ repair bill to which he replied "Write to me". I then contacted Devon Trading Standards and BP customer Care. BP were most unhelpful and were keen to point out that all BP did was to supply the signage and the fuel to the site. They told me that the proprietor was responsible for the fuel he sold and would be peronally liable should it be proven that he had been negligent. Trading Standards were also inept in dealing with the problem despite me furnishing them with the details of the driver of the other contaminated vehicle. They accepted the proprietor's claim that the bucket into which I had seen the fuel decanted was dirty and it was this dirt which was laying in the bottom of it!
The proprietor admitted liability several months later only when he received a near identical claim from the other driver (my claim included loss of earnings for aditional leave I had to take). Bizarrely, his insurers would not refund the £25 I had spent on the contaminated fuel! This experience happened about three years ago but the parrallels drawn are exactly that of the current crisis. Keep your fuel receipts, ask the repairer to retain a sample of the fuel they had drained and keep your invoice for the repair work. It will come as no surprise that I now boycott all BP sites.

My bike seems to have been experiencing performance issues this week, I should add that its a push bike, my theory is that I've been inhaling contaminated fumes from these vehicles which have affected the engine (i.e. me!) - could I get compensation?

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We always get our Derv and Unleaded from Morrisons (Hinckley) and have never had a problem. I have never noticed and performance diferance between brands with the same rating.

i work in a texaco garage in south wales in the town there is only us and tesco since the outbrake of this 'contaminated fuel' the takings have been up by 40% and we arnt even in the efected area.

My car - Renault Megane - had the same symptoms after filling up at Tesco last weekend. Turned out to be a faulty ignition coil, repaired under warranty. Car now runs fine.
Just wondering if some smaller garages are jumping on the bandwagon and diagnosing poisoned oxygen sensors when its a dodgy coil?

It would appear that the price of PETROL will go up according to tonights news, no doubt us diesel runners will get kicked in the teeth too.

The good old motorist paying the price for someones problem yet again

Most of the price rise expected in Fuel, comes from the fact, that Crude in NW Europe closed on Friday at $61.81/Bbl. It has been climbing for the last two weeks.

The Market Differential between Petrol and Diesel, has shrunk to 00.61p/litre.
However this is for 50ppm Fuels. The closing of the gap, could be down to accelerating Petrol price, against the stable Diesel price. Trader's see an opportunity, to make money out of a contrived shortage, brought about by recent events.

The amount of contaminated Fuel is miniscule, compared to the Retail Volume throughout the country. Some Retailer's will put up their prices, to offset any claims made against them, and we all know who they are.

if this situation, with the contaminated petrol, raises the price of petrol, i for one will not be using tesco or morrisons , in any way.
as this is the only way i see to protest. it is not our fault ,so why should we pay.


Approved Driving Instructor.

As a diesel driver, I agree with Stuart Cakebread's comment that we'll get stung for a price increase.

Also, - as conspiracy theories abound and why hesitate to add to them - as we can see the non-supermarket premium brands are well rated; are the current events a ploy to get the unleaded drivers to buy the premium products from premium priced fuel companies? By what mechanism I'm not going to speculate but let's face it, cheaper fuel supplied by supermarkets is taking away the revenue of BP, Esso, Total et al and what better way to guarantee yourself the custom.

Can I just say its not the local station that desides the price of Fuel, its the main fuel company. They take into acount prices at neighbouring stations against the volume of fuel that has sold in the past few days, if the price is low and sales are up the price will rise untill sales start to drop.

Sainsbury's have been unaffected, but I think still get tarred with the "cheap quality fuel" brush. It's not a widely known fact, but all of Sainsbury's is supplied by BP (check out the 'Fuel Info' section of this site), so there's nothing to worry about, you're getting BP quality without the 3-4 pence per litre premium. I've never had and problems with Sainsbury fuel. My local Sainsbury's is charging 85.9 and 88.9 for unleaded and diesel respectively, so I shall continue to use them.

The exact source of the contaminated fuel has now been identified. The Company in question, "HARVEST ENERGY" operates a fuel distribution plant in the South of England, which supplies most of the leading supermarkets with fuel. Clearly the blame lies squarely at the door of this irresponsible company The costs for repair of affected vehicles / replacement of fuel stocks should be met by "HARVEST ENERGY" NOT the long suffering British motorist !!

Fortunately I have beenn unaffected by the contaminated fuel farce but I have some friends who have.

One, a lady took her car to the Garage in Dagenham and they had it until Saturday afternoon and had not even checked the Oxygen Sensor until I mentioned it to her and she told the garage to check the Sensor which was precisely the problem . When the Sensor was replaced the problem was cured.

Incompetent or just another garage taking the P... out of a female motorist. Surprise Surprise.

In reply to Andrew Messias question of 4th March. She had purchased her |Petrol at Asda the day the defect occurred

There are no problems with GULF petrol stations.

Looks like you have been conned by the garage mate like many other people!

Bring back the carburettor, never had problems like this with them. lol

I have just had it confirmed to me by Tesco Claims that I will not be recompensed for the garage bill of £820 (2 x o2 sensors, filter, fuel, etc) because I am one of those people that don't bother keeping receipts and only pay by cash, no club card!! no credit card!! just faith in a large company to supply a product as stated ie fuel fuel nothing but fuel. We have been informed there is no recourse to take this any further, however, I will be boycotting Tesco's (and all my friends who use them) even though this will mean myself and the wife having to travel further to shop and refuel.

According to the Claims Representative and we have spoken to many of them, all with a different story, I am the first one they have heard of that has no proof of purchase, I find this hard to believe.

This is not only bad PR on Tesco's part but false economy, ie 4 or 5 shopping trips with a few fuel fill ups would have recouped the compensation amount but now they will lose my custom.

One other thing, its been mentioned about getting the cctv footage, unfortunately I have been informed that cctv is kept on a 2 week loop so will have been erased and is also covered by the Data Protection Act , which is convenient for them. It shows little forethought on their behalf.

Hi,
does anyone now of a list of sites that had contaminated fuel. We are having trouble pinpointing the exact one.
thanks

Hello, I am new to contaminated fuel but now can't get to know enough about it. I fill up at the same station with diesel 98% of the time (unless I am out of the area). My 3 yr old Terrano just out of warrenty has been diagnosed with the need to replace the fuel pump and injectors. The Nissan mechanic asked where I purchased my fuel from as it was not clean and had a funny smell to it.... like white spirit??? So the car went in and in the meantime I bought a 3 yr old Jaguar estate 2.0 diesel. The test drive was great and I drove it around for the afternoon and great. I filled up at my normal service station (one week after my Terrano) and guess what happened.... that same evening I had a fuel problem. It went back to the dealer who referred it to Jaguar who have today said they believe it is contaminated fuel.... I am so unhappy, completely skint and just don't know what to do next. It is a Shell service station and I have my receipts and Jag are keeping a sample of the diesel but is it possible to argue with such a huge company???

We filled our Lorry with diesel from a garage in Northl eicester and experienced major problems with 2 breakdowns. On inspection the fuel has a sooty type sedemnent in it. Once drained and replaced with new fuel everything was fine. Anyone else experienced similar problems around the end of October?

My Renault Scenic is showing the exact symptoms of contaminated fuel detailed by many in March this year. The car has been misfiring, spluttering, loosing power and my mechanic is suggesting dirty fuel injectors and damaged Lamda sensors. There are many of his clients with the same problem and the common factor is our local Sainsbury's 'Sava-Centre' in Colliers Wood, London.

Is there any advice about compensation to be had, and is the problem with fuel from this outlet known to others?

I filled up with Morrisons (Yeadon) diesel two weeks ago (Feb08) and soon after my car (Almera) would not start from cold. I took it to a couple of garages and they said one of the causes could be contaminated fuel. The contamination could have damaged the injectors, causing air to flow back to pump etc . .
Any one had a similar experience?

The engine warning light came on on my Astra (and there was a slight misfiring of the engine) so when it was in for its service yesterday it had a new gasket fitted on the exhaust gas recirculation valve. The mechanics reckon that the problem was caused by supermarket petrol not containing a cleaner and recommended I use a different company at regular intervals.
Has anyone else had this experience? Can we ask Tesco to put the right ingredients into their petrol?

Refueled my diesel X trail at ASDA Middlesbrough on 14 April a dya or so later it started juddering and lost acceloration. Took to garage, who having taken it apart found whta smelled like petrol in fuel pipes. I have receipts from all my recent refuels all state clearl that I bought diesel. No one else has used the car and anyway both or cars are diesels and have been for years, so only ever buy diesel.
Contacted ASDA who stated had know other complaints as far as they were aware and told me to contact trading stndards. I did this and took their advice re making a claim against ASDA. My insurance company will also follow up, however I don't want to lose my no claims bonus and face increased premiums if not successful.
Awaiting outcome of claim, but cannot believe that others haven't been fescted as well. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Exactly the same here. I filled up a full the tank of my Mercedes SLK at my local Sainsburys with Unleaded. The next afternoon I had terrible misfiring and juddering with loss of power at higher speeds and revs. My dealer has had the car in the garage for nearly a week now and is no nearer to finding what on earth is wrong with my engine. It did happen before after filling up a full tank at a Shell station so I dont think it really matters if you buy branded or supermarket fuel. Last time they changed the fuel filter and the fault went away after buying fuel from another source. This time my engine is truly knackered and I have no diagnosis as yet. Sainsburys say they have not had any complaints but I have agut feeling its a fuel problem.

I filled my Mini Cooper with £20 worth of Shell VPower petrol from Corley Services Northbound in Warwickshire yesterday. I got as far as Birmingham when my car started to lose power under acceleration. I pulled over to the hard shoulder and the car died. When I turned the engine back on it would tick over with no problem but if I asked it to move it didn't. The RAC man said he could find no engine fault and asked if I had refuelled recently. I explained that I had and he opened the petrol cap, smelt it and confirmed it was definitely unleaded fuel I had filled with, but when he touched it it appeared waxy. He suspected the fuel was contaminated and I am now having to sort out the tank being drained, a sample kept and the problem fixed. Not amusing

MY SCENIC DIESEL HAD PROBLEMS WITH A LOT OF SMOKE FROM THE EXHAUST. TOOK INTO LOCAL DEALER THEY TELL ME IHAVE CONTAMINATED DIESEL. SO FAR HAD TO HAVE ALL TANK AND FILTER CLEARED £500 UP TO NOW COULD HAVE CAUSED MORE PROBLEMS. ONLY FILL UP AT LOCAL TESCOS.

Has this site gone quiet?

I have a Toyota Avensis Deisel 04 (a Which best buy) - comming home from West Wales this August the Turbo broke - Having had it fixed (lots of money) it has been discovered that the fuel is comtaminated.... even more expense. If it was this fuel was bought in West Wales or the M4 corridor and not from a super market - (I always go for a Shell, Esso, BP, Texaco). Anyone else recognise the porblem?

Just had an emissions sensor failure on my 64Kmiles Passat 1.9tdi, 180 miles after filling at Tesco Copdock nr Ipswich Suffolk. Coincidence or are Tesco back to the problems of a couple of yeas ago?.
Anyone else affected>
Please let me know.
Chris

Yes I had fuel contamination after visiting Wellingborough Tescos. Large amounts of water found. I even had a fuel sample taken and investigated they couldn't even test it becauase of the amount water. This was super unleaded cost so far with test of £117.50 is £942.26. Going to complain to Tescos with evidence then If not satisfied with Tescos reply go for a small claims against them. How did the water get into my Fuel tank?

Filled up my Toyota Rav 4 at Tesco's in Huntingdon. It has been juddering, Stalling and losing power ever since. Ran the petrol down to empty filled it up at a local shell garage has been purring along ever since. Last time I try and save afew pence