Bad Diesel

[flippin]

Hi,
My Tiguan 09' 2.0 Diesel broke down the other night. My wife put $20.00 of diesel in from our local caltex "Woolworths" petrol station the other day. She drove around for about 50km in a period of 2 days and then all of a sudden the car just stopped. It could not be started again it would try to turn over but just wouldn't start. I have had it towed to the nearest VW dealer where they looked at it and their only symptom is that it is bad fuel. They say it will not be under warranty and want $900 to drain the fuel tank and replace the fuel filter.

Anyone else had a similar experience? and what did they do? any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[philsan]

mate
I hope your wife kept her receipt?
IF you can prove the diesel fuel had some contaminate in it,I would be fronting up to Woolworths with the bill for repairs to your car.
If you can get a sample of the fuel,then have it independantly tested and provide the test results to Woolworths.They would be liable in my opinion!
phil.

[flippin]

mate
I hope your wife kept her receipt?
IF you can prove the diesel fuel had some contaminate in it,I would be fronting up to Woolworths with the bill for repairs to your car.
If you can get a sample of the fuel,then have it independantly tested and provide the test results to Woolworths.They would be liable in my opinion!
phil.

Thanks philsan,

She didn't keep the receipt but paid by card so its on the statement. Phew.... We are getting a fuel sample from VW when they fix our car and then i have contacted caltex. They have asked me to fill out a customer query form.

Now to find out where i can get the fuel tested.

I spoke to VW about what fuel i should use and they said that "Vortex" was the one that they recommended, and this is what she put in. They also tell me that slight variation of fuel type can cause problems on the newer diesel engines. Which makes me think why do they build them these days so that they are so temperamental.

I love my Tiguan but this is making me think twice about them.

[Frankenstrat]

$900 to drain the fuel tank and replace the fuel filter seems outrageous to me.

Can you be absolutely certain that your wife filled with Caltex Vortex diesel and not Caltex Vortex petrol?

[flippin]

$900 to drain the fuel tank and replace the fuel filter seems outrageous to me.

Can you be absolutely certain that your wife filled with Caltex Vortex diesel and not Caltex Vortex petrol?

Positive. Even VW have said that there is only diesel in it. They even said that there is no water in the diesel.
I asked them about the price and they tell me the have allready worked on the car for 3 hours. Looks like i won't get the car back till Monday as they have to test it hot and cold starts.

[Transporter]

Well, I would think that if they refused you to repair your car under the warranty, then they have to have the reason and the proof for it. So, they should get the fuel sample tested and go from there. Unless the car is out of warranty and you accepted to pay for it.

[Diesel_vert]

Generally, I don't believe any manufacturer's vehicle warranty would cover poor fuel.

If the issue is successfully traced to poor fuel, then I'm afraid VW are not liable.

Should this be the case, I think you should take it up with Caltex directly. BP and Shell have fuel guarantees, so you can claim for bad fuel - I'm not sure if Caltex has such a policy, but it's certainly worth trying.


BP - Fuel Guarantee (PDF)
Shell - Fuels Quality Claims Process

[Transporter]

You're right, no manufacturer will cover the damage that was caused by the fuel. Howeve,r as we buy fuel from the legitimate busineses, there is always the option to take the legal action and recover your cost for repairing the damage, they all have the liability insurance.

To the OP, just make sure that they test the fuel. The cost of the repair could be much more than $900, infact you could ad one more "0" to that.

[gldgti]

Transporter - do you know if the OP's car will be PD or CR? Maybe its another one of the injector failures... From OP's first post, doesnt sound to me like its definately a fuel quality problem anyway - could be any fuel delivery problem.

[Transporter]

Tiguan is CR.
I agree when everything is OK there is not much you can do when driving normaly to make your economy noticebly wrong. I'm within 0.5L/100km no matter how hard I try to get better fuel economy, mainly due to my short trips, but even one over 200km trip on fill up will not get me better than 0.5L/100km.

The quality of the fuel will have impact on the fuel consumption in Tiguan, due to the DPF regeneration. With the lower quality fuel the ECU will do more regenerations.

[whiskywallah]

Jokes out of the way first...
BAD diesel ..... No such thing... Just diesel LOL

Put petrol in a diesel car and it would barely get off the forecourt.

And how did this topic suddenly switch to fuel economy? Did I miss a post?

I think we are going to see more and more of this sort of thing. We expect car manufacturers to squeeze every ounce of juice out of an ever smaller engine. That means they have to tighten fuel tolerances to only work with one very narrow grade of fuel. And fuel in Australia is very 'dirty' compared to Europe.
We need to keep hammering away at fuel companies to do better.

I don't think $900 is excessive so long as they do a thorough job. If it really is properly dirty fuel then bill could be much higher to replace all the contaminated and now broken parts.

[kaanage]

I wonder if this is a case where the CR HPFP piston has rotated in it's housing and then shredded itself with the swarf ending up all through the fuel lines (including the return back to the fuel tank)?
Some did report this happening here a few months ago.

[Transporter]

No, that would be to cheap, the $900 wouldn't cover the cost of the part.

[Umai Naa!!]

In the current commonrail diesel VWs, don't expect much change from $6,000 if you happen to put petrol in them, and try to drive them.

The only thing I can advise you, is if you're in doubt, check your recipt. If it turns out that you've put petrol in it DON'T DRIVE IT AT ALL!! You'll save yourself thousands.

There are two distinct procedures that VW has outlined for both scenarios. If you decide to start the car, things get very expensive very quickly. If you don't, it's only a matter of emptying the tank, and flushing the lines, and replacing the fuel filter. Remember, even turning the key to 'ON' will cycle the intank fuel pump.

[Umai Naa!!]

$900 to drain the fuel tank and replace the fuel filter seems outrageous to me.

Can you be absolutely certain that your wife filled with Caltex Vortex diesel and not Caltex Vortex petrol?

There's no drain plug on the tank. It's just an appropriately-shaped plastic container. There is a drain procedure in the diagnostic software that the dealer uses, which will operate the in-tank fuel pump. It's quicker than completely removing the tank, but it's still time-consuming. Also, you don't ever get everything out. So they may have removed the tank anyway to be sure.