Contaminated fuel (petrol)
Contaminated fuel (petrol)
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cptwacky

Original Poster:

1 posts

41 months

Thursday 4th May 2023
quotequote all
Hi folks.
Im looking for advice or anyone with experience in this.
Currently driving hyundai i30 1.5 gdi
Here's the story so far

Filled up my tank from empty to full on the 18/4/23, ran the car for a week until half tank on the 25/4/23. Then i started toi have problems. car lost power/acceleration and started juddering like it was about to stall, every acceleration in any gear with any revs car is juddering. (Could be 2k revs in 3rd gear doing 30 and still problem) engine management light was intermittent.

Nursed the car home and contacted dealer, got a flat bed to uplift the car to take to the garage instead of driving it there, to be seen on the 28th.

This tuesday 2/5/23 i got a call saying car is ready to pick up and it was diagnosed under a misfire, though no real detail of what happened and since i picked it up late on the service team, had already closed.

Took the car out the garage and driving home the exact same fault happened. Again, nursed it home, was too late to call them so i phoned in the morning, 3/5/23.

Later that day it was picked up and taken back to the garage. They have phoned and now said their diagnosis was contaminated fuel after draining the tank and everything that needs replaced could be over 2.5k repair bill.

I am awaiting a call from a manager to discuss further.

Does anyone have any experience or similar to what has happened.

Questions that come to me are, how can i drive for a week and half a tank on contaminated fuel. Why did you say the car was fixed and allow me to drive away the fist time i picked up.

any help or questions are very much appreciated.

Cheers

Cpt Wacky

Mr Miata

1,220 posts

80 months

Thursday 4th May 2023
quotequote all
Does everything even need to be replaced? Can’t they just drain the tank and flush it through?

I imagine the residual left over inside the injectors is a very small amount

Limpet

6,627 posts

191 months

Thursday 4th May 2023
quotequote all
Before agreeing to, or much less paying anything beyond the labour for the diagnosis, I would want to know what the fuel was contaminated with, and how they've arrived at that conclusion. Have they had the fuel analysed, and if so, can they give you a copy of the report (use the excuse that you will need this to take it up with the offending petrol station). Also what exactly needs replacing, and how is it linked to this contamination? What investigation work have they done so far?

A colleague had a similar experience with a Peugeot 406 back in the 90s, and after asking all the questions above, they miraculously managed to "reset something", charged him an hour's labour/diagnostic fee, and it was fine.

The attitude and professionalism of Hyundai dealers varies massively, in my experience.