"bad diesel" causing huge problems to my 05 passat

Filled up for the 1st time at a Shell station (which is supplied by Standard Oil for their diesel) on beginning of a road trip. After the frist pit stop, and on each additional one for the 8-hr trip, the car did not want to start but each time finally did. The return trip home was ok the following day, but did notice not as much power to the car. Toward the end of the trip, filled up again at a different station. The next day when accellerating on the highway, car chugged and did not want to move too fast. However, as long as not putting the petal to the metal, and just accellerating very slowly, did ok.

Passat is '05, with 65k miles. VW dealer determined it was bad diesel, and have spent hours cleaning out gunked-up parts, and went thru two $90 fuel filter changes allready, dumped out all the diesel and replaced with new. I'm up to several hundreds in cost allready, but now VW says they are recommending, because of damage to the power train, that that needs to be replaced to the tune of over $3,500. I'm 5,000 miles out of the warranty.

Any suggestions on recourse? Who'se responsible? I don't have receit for the Shell diesel, but do have my credit card statement where it shows on there.

Did you not fill up with ULSD? If you filled up with 500 PPM diesel in your PD that could be the cause.

ULSD is not required for the PD engine so that's not an issue. Normally in this situation a fuel filter change and new fuel would solve the problem. Is it still running bad? It sounds like your dealer is trying to take you for one expensive ride. I'd test drive the car now and see how it runs before agreeing to any more "repairs".

If it still runs bad, maybe you should try this product. I've read some good reports about it.



http://www.starbrite.com/productdet...t=Gas & Diesel Additives (Auto)&ProductSSCat=

Diesel Addict said:

If it still runs bad, maybe you should try this product. I've read some good reports about it.

http://www.starbrite.com/productdet...t=Gas & Diesel Additives (Auto)&ProductSSCat=

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yes, it is good!

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=117523

see page 2, post #17.


Have you kept up with the maintenance? There are some good guru's in New England and NY that you might want to look-up!

stoodbriefly said:

I'm up to several hundreds in cost allready, but now VW says they are recommending, because of damage to the power train, that that needs to be replaced to the tune of over $3,500. I'm 5,000 miles out of the warranty.

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Sorry, I'm confused. Replace what? The power train? For $3,500?? Do not let them start swapping parts to see what works; you will be in for a large bill!

I would suggest you get the car away from the dealer and have a check out done by one of the trusted mechanics listed in the TDI101 forums.

I'm floored that a single tank of bad fuel could cause the ruin of an entire engine. I don't buy it.

MAYBE it could damage the IP and injectors. But short of running a tankful of, say, nitroglycerin (in which case the entire city block would have been in danger), I'm afraid I hafta go with the notion of taking it somewhere that they aren't into just throwing parts at it.

I also have to point out to previous posters that 95 Passats don't have PD engines, absent some serious surgery.

{edit: oops, 05, not 95. yup, blame it on these old eyes.}

OP said "05" Passat.

sounds like it had water/dirt, and this may have overloaded the filter and got to the injectors? so they want to do an injector replacement to the tune of $3500?

What is the definition of bad diesel

% water
% dirt
No Cetane

What is bad about this fuel - two filters - was it full of dirt - bio growth -

DaMidget said:

Did you not fill up with ULSD? If you filled up with 500 PPM diesel in your PD that could be the cause.

Click to expand...

Is non-ULSD even available anymore?

Where are you in CT? There are a few guru's in CT and MA. Post in the Northeast section and see if someone can help you.

Few years ago I reported on this web site that on my return trip from Florida I experienced similar lacking power and missfire problems which turned to be caused by large percentile of gasoline in the diesel
I am wondering if todays huge price difference doesn't seduces some stations to lace the diesel with gasoline.

that can happen accidentally. That is, the delivery guy puts the hose to the wrong tank.

If you really have "bad diesel" get the filters from the dealership and call Shell. Let them take a look and see what's actually in the filter. If the fuel is bad and filters plugged, they will be loaded with whatever it is.

Too easy for the dealership to blame the fuel without saying what is exactly wrong with it. "Bad fuel" is code for "we don't know what we are doing".

BTW, what's Standard Oil? I haven't seen a Standard station in 20 years....