Tesco apologises for contaminated fuel

I have a 4 yr old mitsubishi outlander, from new, 39,000 miles on the clock, serviced by mitsubishi every year. For 4 yrs I have been filling it up once a month with diesel at Tesco in Lisburn. After filling up early April, when the fuel panic was on, my car ran for a day then died on me. AA recovery said fuel contamination and when he syphoned some fuel out of the tank it was thick black sludge, bits floating in it etc. Had to pay £600 to local garage for further recovery, drainage, cleaning etc but car still wouldnt work. Problem with injectors... the fuel filter was clogged, the injectors were caked in filfth and unrepairable. I am now looking at a £2,500 repair bill, on top of me having to hire a car for three weeks and join the AA! Filled out a complaints form at Tesco but have yet heard nothing, but did find out the tanks had apparently been cleaned, a week after I had re-fuelled. Any other issues from Lisburn I would love to know as I will not let this drop. I am now having to consider selling my car to pay for the repairs!!!

Filled up my Astra diesel at Tesco Whitstable 28/3/12, drove to Sussex no problem.
Would not start when I stopped for 5 mins. I was towed to local Vauxhall dealer where the fuel tank was drained of contaminated fuel and system flushed, they recommend having high pressure pump examined I received a bill of £235 and lost £60.00 of diesel. Has anyone had any similar experience.

My Astra is broken, the fuel -"momentum" - from my local Tesco petrol station - Cardiff, St Mellons, Diagnose: contaminated fuel. Please, contact me asap.

I always buy diesel from Tesco, Tower Park in Poole. After two AA call outs, 2 visits to my local garage I ended up going to the Renault garage to finally sort my car problems out. Renault confirmed it was contaminated fuel, explaining that when they drained the fuel tank, the diesel didn't smell of anything and was very watery. Total bill £700. I have written to Tesco who told me to go into my local store and complete a form for this to go forward and also take in the reports from the AA and Renault. When I went in, Customer Services knew nothing about it, and had never heard of the said form. I am still waiting to hear from Tesco as I write this comment. Extremely frustinging - has anyone else had problems in the Dorset area?

Tesco's fuel has been extremely bad for 17 years, as I had pre-ignition from my Nova back in 1995, and it would happen everytime I filled up at Tesco's, cars that have got injectors wouldn't give me the power after filling up at Tesco's, other cars were sluggish. and tried the Diesel in my C3 Picasso, and it would stall everytime pulling off, plus done 75 miles less during a tank of Diesel

Always use Basildon Tesco Diesel fuel for my ford focus. In August 2011 the fuel injectors went because of water in the fuel. Total cost of repair £1000. Its now February 2012 and exactly the same thing has happened. The garage has warned me not to use Tesco because their diesel fuel is rubbish, something to do with Bio fuels.

Had a few problems with my corsa the last few days - turns out it was water in the fuel and guess where I fill up every 3 days... tesco!!! Been advised by my mechanic never use tesco it's awful!!! I'd rather spend an extra £1 per tank and go to BP!!!

Just been told that our diesel car has been cutting out at random speeds due to contaminated fuel. Last filled up in Tesco's at Ashford in Kent.
Waiting to find out the repair bill, then will be taking it to Tesco. Anyone else experience this?

I have just got the news that the diesel in our car is contaminated with petrol - will have to pay £ 270 for repairs plus around £60 for watsed "diesel". I am always filling the car at Tesco in Leicester (Narborough Road) - last time December the 1st 2011. Has anybody expereinced something similar?
PLEASE LET ME kNOW!! Cheers

Has anyone had problems in the edinburgh area? I know this is saying UK but I have had a breakdown from contaminated water in the Edinburgh area.

I filled up with diesel at Tetbury Tesco on December 18th 2010 - car died shortly after, 3 diesel injectors ruined - total bill £2000 (4 year old Toyota, only 45000 miles). I've written to Tesco - looks like I got the standard letter back - they say 'no-one reported a problem with out fuel on the day of your visit' and that because I managed one long journey before the car broke down (on the M25 slip road!) that 'as you was able to driver your car for a long distance, after purchasing fuel from our Tetbury store, this demonstrates the fuel was fit for purpose'. They also list the measures that they have in place to prevent fuel being contaminated but from looking at several on the comments above and speaking to my local garage, plus a couple of others in my village, there clearly was a problem around that time. I hope they respond differently to this letter, otherwise I'll have to seek legal advice.

Same here livid! Just been told by Landrover that my Freelander lost power over the weekend owing to contaminated fuel - guess where I buy my fuel from.... yes Tesco, this time in Tetbury, Glos. £240 bill and I still have fuel in the car, not sure where that now leaves me, should I ask them to drain the fuel to avoid a reoccurrence? Has anyone had any luck in getting any recompense from Tesco?

hi, has anybody else had water problems after filling up with diesel at tesco in glossop derbyshire jan_feb 2011. I filled up landrover from red light with £85.00 of diesel, did about 40 miles then total engine cut out, aa recovery couldnt start it, relayed to landrover garage, after ages trying to find the fault they drained the feul tank and found lots and lots of water, a sample of which i have saved.£630.00 repair bill then £97 to refill the completely empty tank, so about £800 to fill up and 4 days with no vehicle!tesco say they do not have a water contamination problem and thats that!!!!I would love to take this to court but fear being crushed on my own, please help!!!!!

Just had to have diesel filler changed and tank flushed out due to contaminated feul., in my pergeot 307 HDi . lucky I know a mechanic and he repaired it for £85 but worry know about perminant damage as just thought it was a problem with timing, until the car kept kangarooing along the road.
Have been using TESCO fuel at BOURNVILLE BIMINGHAM in the last few weeks, as it was cheaper than BP. Had the car for 2 years and not had any problems, recently had it serviced.
Will not be using Tesco feul again!!.
I am a community nurse and have to use my car every day in very unsafe areas of town alone and worry about the car breaking down as I had to wait a while before fixing it as I had to rearrange patients visits to get it fixed.
If they are guilty they should admitt to it,if they were public sector workers they would have been ousted by know!!! WHY has this been going on for years i have read complaints from 2007 on the net.
We are constantly being told Tesco are a shining example of a succesful enterprise.

sally, 11th. June 2012 10.30pm

Bought unleaded from Tesco Hover Building Perivale today. the pump was super slow. Took about 6-8 minutes to do 10 litres!
Got fed up and tried to go to the next pump but car stated to chug straight away.
Complained to the customer services.
They were not surprised as it has been happening to a few other customers in the last few day.
The fuel was contaminated.
Got a refund for the fuel but on a Tesco's charge card. and was told to get it fixed and claim Tesco for the repairs.
Will update on how easily the claim goes.

has anybody had any problems with diesel at cleethorpes tesco, filled up on 7am ish tuesday 10th 2011.
cars still in garage :(

I always use Morrisons in Peckham when buying petrol - it's the almost always the cheapest round here. Last week my Volvo lost power and juddered to a halt. The AA thought it might be spark plugs or distributor cap and these were replaced by garage (probably necessary anyway) but in fact it turns out to be contaminated fuel and the whole system has had to be drained down, and filters and petrol pump replaced. Heaven knows what the eventual bill will be! So much for cheap petrol - not so cheap after all.
Is it worth reporting the problem to Morrisons? I doubt it even though the garage says he's aware of others with the same problem.

Our deisel Saab 93 lost power when under strain and juddered (intermittantly).

We had our garage look at it - they cant find a fault but advised a number of cars had problems after using fuel from Tescos Midsomer Norton.

Hopefully we have suffered no damage.

i had an engine light come on car stopped working and my garage told me the fuel was contaimnated and i brought fuel from tescos broadbridge heath horsham and thay just fob you off DONT BY FUEL FROM TESCOS thay have just cost me 1200 quid new pump injectors and other bits EVERY LITTLE HELPS

My Honda Civic Type R is currently at the local Honda dealer being looked at due to suspected contaminated fuel from local Tesco in Dumfries. I filled up on 5th April 2011 and after several miles the engine malfunction light came on and the engine misfired at low speed. The engine management system is indication a loss of compression in all 4 cylinders.