Key points:
- More customers have complained of contaminated fuel at an east Brisbane service station
- One customer faces a repair bill in excess of $8,000
- Service station management say they are investigating the issue
A service station operator says it is investigating claims of contaminated fuel from a site in Brisbane’s east as more customers come forward with tales of broken-down vehicles and costly repair bills.
In early March, the ABC reported that a number of motorists had filled up at the NightOwl service station in Wakerley, only to find they could not drive their vehicles off the premises or they stopped working after leaving.
Some customers, like David Fife’s son, Nixon, had filled up during the heavy rain event which flooded low-lying parts of the city in late February.
Since then, Mr Fife said he heard from dozens of people who had encountered the same issue at the site.
He said he spoke with the service station owner and another NightOwl Convenience representative recently and was shown the quality control procedures but the meeting ended soon after.
The ABC has heard from five other customers about the issues they faced after purchasing fuel at the service station.
One woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, said she last filled up at the NightOwl Wakerley service station on June 28, four months after Brisbane’s latest flood.
“I’ve got a whole string of emails back and forth between me and the owner,” she said.
“The RACQ said earlier this year in an ABC story that this is a rare occurrence but it doesn’t seem to be rare at all.
The woman said she and her husband had filled up their car but parked it in their garage for six days before using it to take items to the Chandler resource recovery centre. On the way, a warning light flashed up on the dashboard.
They had their car towed to Isuzu Cleveland and the mechanic there told them they had water in their fuel.
Their car was a 2020 Isuzu MU-X and hadn’t experienced any problems previously.
“It cost us $1,000 to drain the fuel and get the car fixed,” she said.
“Because we’d bought the fuel six days before that, put it in the garage, and were driving the older car around for the rest of the week, we were lucky water didn’t get into the engine.”
Cleveland resident Alf Stanley had borrowed a courier van from a friend and was helping him with deliveries when he filled up at NightOwl Wakerley a month ago.
“I filled up a tank of diesel and I didn’t get very far,” he said.
He said NightOwl checked the fuel and thought it was fine.
Mr Stanley said it cost more than $600 to get the tank flushed and the fuel filter replaced and he lost three days’ work — not to mention the $140 he had paid for the diesel that had to be drained.
“Totalled up, it’s a fair bit of money lost,” Mr Stanley said.
“I’ve spoken to the fuel supplier of the site and they said once the fuel is delivered to the site, it’s no longer their responsibility.”
He said some locals refused to go there since February this year because they were concerned the site flooded regularly.
Ms Savage said she took the jar of contaminated fuel to the service station and left it there to be inspected but had not heard anything.
“I’m lucky, I can afford insurance and it will cover the bill to fix it, but it’s the principle,” she said.
Alan Chambers lives three minutes from the NightOwl service station and last filled up in February this year.
“I only ever filled up because it was convenient, and it does sell the cheapest fuel in the area,” the Manly West resident said.
“I filled my Triton up — $50 worth of diesel and as I drove off the fuel filter light came on.
“I had just spent $2,000 replacing the fuel tank a few months earlier.
“My mechanic provided me with a video report, and there was more crap in there than there was diesel.
“It cost me $900 to have a new line, filter, and get it cleaned out.”
Mr Chambers also contacted Viva Energy, which said it was not their problem once they delivered fuel to the store.
“I sent in the video from Barton’s [mechanic], the receipt for work done, the receipt from filling up [to NightOwl Wakerley], and they said they had sold 10,000L that day with no problem, and to go to my insurance provider to get reimbursed,” he said.
In a statement, NightOwl Convenience’s head office said: “NightOwl are currently investigating this claim”.
NightOwl Wakerley Shell also said: “NightOwl is investigating the issue. [We] will make a statement once this is complete”.
What to do if your fuel is contaminated
RACQ principal technical researcher Andrew Kirk said customers who believed they had bought contaminated fuel needed to go to the fuel supplier’s head office.
He also recommended making a complaint to the Queensland Office of Fair Trading and the Commonwealth National Measurement Institute, which was responsible for fuel quality.
“These things shouldn’t occur, and it comes down to the seal around the fuel tank,” he said.
“It’s not a common occurrence.
“Most of the time when water is coming in is when the tanker comes in, that’s the part that is being opened and closed, opened and closed, and any water can run in.
“The fuel can’t get out until water overflows it.”
Mr Kirk said if customers suspected their fuel was contaminated, they should stop driving the car immediately.
“Once the fuel is drained out, they normally won’t have any ongoing issues. Water in diesel in a modern diesel engine will be picked up quickly and most four-wheel drives have a water trap and a warning light comes on.
“There’s nothing you can do to foresee the problem. You can’t check the fuel beforehand.”
He also advised motorists not to fuel up straight after heavy rain and flooding.
“It’s also best to fuel up at the bigger service stations where they’re getting a higher turnover of fuel, rather than smaller places that fill up their tank once a week,” he said.
“Whereas a bigger BP might fill up every couple of days and there would be a bigger likelihood of picking up the problem.”
Extracted from ABC