Beware Cheap Diesel!

Sgt Pepper 64

A relation of mine has just paid out 500 euro for new fuel injectors.
The mechanic asked him if he had filled up anywhere different lately and surprise surprise he had!
The mechanic went on to say, that they have had a lot of business out of cheap diesel users recently!

I'm not going to name the garage and theres no proof that every vehicle thats filled up there has been affected, but generally i suppose its the old saying - if it looks too good to be true.... etc

So lets be careful out there people!

Happy Motoring

congo_90

ballymount road is known

kelle

OMG, the same happened my friend. The mechanic told her he had over 20 incidents involving getting cheap diesel from a particular garage.

And the owner is married to a person we went to school with and we want to support his business, but this makes it difficult!

OP, is this garage based on the western region of Meath?

PauloMN

Any chance of PM'ing the general location of the garage?

Atomic Pineapple

Its simple really if you see a non branded petrol station selling petrol/diesel for 5 cent a litre less than normal you have to be wary.

PauloMN

draffodx wrote: »

Its simple really if you see a non branded petrol station selling petrol/diesel for 5 cent a litre less than normal you have to be wary.

What constitutes "non-branded"?

If I get diesel from some farm for 50c a litre, then of course I would expect to be wary, but why should I be wary of diesel bought from a filling station?

Did the mechanic in the OP explain what the difference was in the diesel that affected the injectors? I'm not doubting any of the stories - all I'm saying is that I'd be equally wary of some of them as I would be of getting 5c off my litre of diesel.

Moanin

These are all TOP branded so I would doubt the truth in this?

Vego

load of bs IMO....you have lads saying the tesco petrol is wrecking engines then its the apple green ...etc

Sgt Pepper 64

Vego wrote: »

load of bs IMO....you have lads saying the tesco petrol is wrecking engines then its the apple green ...etc

Coincidence? Its your engine bill!

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0505/meath.html


"The laundering procedure involves removing dye from cheap agricultural diesel and the 'washed' product is then sold on as ordinary road diesel.
However, the process creates highly toxic sludge which is usually dumped and the 'washed' diesel can result in damaged engines."

MastiffMrs

How long should it take before it supposedly damages ur car? Have been getting diesel at one of the mentioned garages for over a year&no problems.
Hard to turn down the lower prices!

PauloMN

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

Coincidence? Its your engine bill!

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0505/meath.html


"The laundering procedure involves removing dye from cheap agricultural diesel and the 'washed' product is then sold on as ordinary road diesel.
However, the process creates highly toxic sludge which is usually dumped and the 'washed' diesel can result in damaged engines."

You are talking about laundered fuel. The OP seems to be referring to diesel from a filling station. I can understand how laundered fuel could damage the engine if it is agri diesel that's gone through non-approved processing, but I cannot understand how diesel from a filling station that's just 4 or 5c a litre cheaper than others could be damaging injectors.

It seems much more likely to me that stories like this are put out there to frighten people away from cheaper garages.

Sgt Pepper 64

PauloMN wrote: »

You are talking about laundered fuel. The OP seems to be referring to diesel from a filling station. I can understand how laundered fuel could damage the engine if it is agri diesel that's gone through non-approved processing, but I cannot understand how diesel from a filling station that's just 4 or 5c a litre cheaper than others could be damaging injectors.

It seems much more likely to me that stories like this are put out there to frighten people away from cheaper garages.

Thats what I am suggesting, that a garage would buy laundered fuel.
Is that not possible? Or are they monitored in some way?
How do they sell the laundered fuel then? Its exactly the sort of thing you buy down a pub!

Atomic Pineapple

PauloMN wrote: »

What constitutes "non-branded"?

If I get diesel from some farm for 50c a litre, then of course I would expect to be wary, but why should I be wary of diesel bought from a filling station?

Did the mechanic in the OP explain what the difference was in the diesel that affected the injectors? I'm not doubting any of the stories - all I'm saying is that I'd be equally wary of some of them as I would be of getting 5c off my litre of diesel.

Because they have to be cutting corners somewhere to be able to offer it so much cheaper, it might be in the fuel.

I agree that some stories are incorrect and blown out of proportion but I've seen first hand the damage that dodgy petrol can do to a car.

PauloMN wrote: »

You are talking about laundered fuel. The OP seems to be referring to diesel from a filling station. I can understand how laundered fuel could damage the engine if it is agri diesel that's gone through non-approved processing, but I cannot understand how diesel from a filling station that's just 4 or 5c a litre cheaper than others could be damaging injectors.

It seems much more likely to me that stories like this are put out there to frighten people away from cheaper garages.

Laundered fuel is a big business, especially in border counties, they don't spend thousands on the equipment laundering vast amounts of it to sell it to farmers, some filling stations are involved in selling laundered fuel.

Even if its not laundered, cheaper fuel is likely to be less filtered and have less positive additives added to it meaning your usually actually getting less value for money.

Sgt Pepper 64

The garage is probably unaware that it is buying laundered fuel

"The colourless diesel, which looks like legitimate fuel, is then transported to forecourts and officials believe it would have been sold to forecourts in the Republic as well as in Northern Ireland."


http://www.meathchronicle.ie/news/roundup/articles/2011/05/11/4004351-illegal-diesel-plant-could-have-made-100000-a-week

shawnee

Same problem here in Mid West.:eek:

Borderfox

is it the normal diesel mixed with the bio-diesel being sold from these places?

Atomic Pineapple

Nope, tends to be washed agri diesel, there was a piece on the news about it last night.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0603/diesel.html

Scrumdog

Had van in for service recently and mechanic told me the filter was full of green disel. We get our disel from mainly the same garage and if we don`t get it there we get it at another of it`s branches as we use fuel cards. You would have to wonder.

Paparazzo

There was a laundering plant near the Kilmoon cross on the N2 before too.