Thousands of drivers 'sold suspect petrol'

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Thousands of cars in south east England have broken down after being filled with what is feared to be suspect fuel.

Thousands of cars 'sold suspect fuel'
It was feared that a complete batch of fuel could be suspect

The vehicles failed in many cases after filling up at Tesco supermarket forecourts as well as a number of other smaller retailers.

It was feared that a complete batch of fuel – sufficient to fill an estimated 400,000 cars – could be suspect.

A number of tests are under way to discover the source of the fault which has led to the cars breaking down.

So far tests by the supermarket and Greenergy, the wholesale suppliers, have failed to identify the problem. The fuel appears to meet industry standards.

“We are not denying anything is wrong,” a Greenergy spokesman.

“But we just cannot identify the source of the problem.”

Tesco said its investigations had discovered no fault and a spokesman said it would continue selling fuel.

Other tests were being performed by trading standards officers and car retailers.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers said it was convinced that the fault was due to a contaminated batch of fuel.

“There is a huge range of models affected and it seems to be in a cluster around the south east,” a spokesman said.

“It would be very difficult for it to be anything else.”

A number of motorists reported that their engine warning lights came on without warning.

The early indications were that the problem related to engines getting the wrong mix of oxygen, which was being picked up by internal sensors.

This in turn led to the cars’ engine management systems making the vehicles run on what is described as “limp home” mode – in order to protect both the car and the catalytic converter.

An AA technical specialist said affected drivers would quickly find the car struggling to reach normal revs, slowing down and running badly.

It is understood that older cars – especially those more than around eight years old – have not reported the same problems.

Initially it was suggested that the petrol may have had too much ethanol. But the AA discounted the possibility that the batch had exceeded the five per cent legal maximum.

Darren Ross, 42, an operations manager for a finance company was one of the motorists to encounter difficulty, shortly after refueling his Saab 1.8T at a Tesco superstore in Waltham Abbey in Essex.

“I was told today they had had 15 Saabs come in with the same problem in the space of the last week,” he said.

“I was also told Renault in Ilford have ordered in 1,000 sensors because they want to be ready for customers having similar problems.”

A Tesco spokesman said: "We have had a number of reports from motorists who claim to be experiencing problems after filling up with fuel at Tesco forecourts and we are aware that customers of other supermarkets have also reported difficulties.

"As soon as we were alerted to a potential problem we carried out extensive tests on current and past batches of unleaded fuel, including from some of the affected vehicles, and so far have not discovered any abnormalities or contamination whatsoever.

"Whilst we cannot currently trace any problem back to Tesco fuel we will of course continue to urgently work with our supplier to identify what might be behind it.

"If we discover any problem with our fuel we will inform customers immediately and act quickly to put it right.”