Contaminated Fuel - Pilot: Cornersville, TN 37047

[ispjs]

My buddy got contaminated diesel at this Pilot on Thanksgiving Day:

Store 406, 9211 Lewisburg Highway, Cornersville, TN 37047

It was in the big rig lanes and the diesel was mixed with DEF.  Repair is being completed now, final bill estimated to be between $10,000 and $15,000.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue from that station on that day, or has anyone heard of someone having that issue?  Pilot is saying nothing was wrong with their fuel or system that day.  He had his receipt.  He pulled in needing diesel in his 1-ton Ram tank, his auxiliary bed diesel tank, plus he wanted to take on a little DEF.  He pumped 48 gallons of diesel and 5 gallons of DEF.  When he pulled away from the pumps the truck didn't run right.  Mobile service came out and changed fuel filter and said there was water in filters.  100 miles down the road he added about 12 or 14 gallons out of auxiliary tank and lost rpms.  Dodge dealer tested fuel and it had DEF mixed with it.  

We are hoping that others can be found that had an issue that day.  Repairs underway but he should not have to pay.

[jleamont]

Joe, it begs the question, how on earth could the DEF get mixed into the Diesel? They are not transported on the same tanker truck, DEF carriers carry DEF, not fuel. Does he know if any others had an issue that day?

[wildebill308]

It does sound like someone accidentally pumped the DEF into the diesel tank. 

Bill

[wolfe10]

I would IMMEDIATELY contact: https://www.tn.gov/agriculture/consumers/fuel/quality-complaints.html

 

Request that they IMMEDIATELY take a sample.  If they can't do it immediately, ask for their recommendation of who can do it and get it to them for evaluation.

 

Anything else will very likely get into a "he claims/she claims".

 

They are also the agency to monitor existance of other similar claims.  If the contamination resulted is a NO RUN condition, others will reach out.

[five]

This confirms my earlier decision to buy my DEF from WalMart or other similar locations, in 2 1/2 gallon containers.  At least I know the DEF is good....how to protect against DEF in the diesel is another issue.

[f433921]

Guess one way to avoid diesel contamination with DEF is to purchase you diesel at stations that don't have pumps to disperse DEF. For the most part I usually fill up at Costco or major grocery stores that have fuel.  I really like Costco because they take samples when receiving all fuels.

Jim

[dbenoit]

I just read what is DEF and what it's composition is. Does it go in a separate tank? I could have looked that up to

but I Iike the way you all answer

[ispjs]

4 hours ago, jleamont said:

Joe, it begs the question, how on earth could the DEF get mixed into the Diesel? They are not transported on the same tanker truck, DEF carriers carry DEF, not fuel. Does he know if any others had an issue that day?

The only way I can think of DEF contaminating a Pilot's underground diesel tank is if a DEF delivery driver dropped some by mistake in the wrong underground tank.  A busy holiday weekend maybe they were hauling extra loads or had inexperienced delivery driver's helping out, don't know.  

I am confident he didn't do it by mistake.  He pulled in needed diesel in his truck tank and his auxiliary diesel bed tank, plus some DEF.  When he finally left his truck tank was full of diesel, his auxiliary tank was full of diesel, and his DEF tank was full.  I don't think he would have taken the DEF nozzle and pumped DEF in the truck tank, again in the auxiliary tank, and then a third time in the DEF tank.

[ispjs]

3 hours ago, wolfe10 said:

I would IMMEDIATELY contact: https://www.tn.gov/agriculture/consumers/fuel/quality-complaints.html

 

Request that they IMMEDIATELY take a sample.  If they can't do it immediately, ask for their recommendation of who can do it and get it to them for evaluation.

 

Anything else will very likely get into a "he claims/she claims".

 

They are also the agency to monitor existance of other similar claims.  If the contamination resulted is a NO RUN condition, others will reach out.

This happened on Thanksgiving.  That was 5 days ago so I'm thinking as much diesel as most Pilot's pump it wouldn't do any good for a sample to be taken of any of their tanks now.  He does have samples which were taken by the Dodge dealer he will be keeping, plus his receipt of course.

I will pass on that web sight to him though.  I think there is a good chance a commercial truck would have gotten contaminated fuel also.  Much better chance of that than another diesel RV getting the bad fuel prior to this Pilot station doing something.

[manholt]

If I remember correctly, Pilot had this same problem about 2 years ago...massive law suit by truckers & truck companies! 

D Benoit, separate tanks!  

FIVE.  Just make sure it's not over 3 months old...DEF has a 90 day life!

[wolfe10]

32 minutes ago, ISPJS said:

This happened on Thanksgiving.  That was 5 days ago so I'm thinking as much diesel as most Pilot's pump it wouldn't do any good for a sample to be taken of any of their tanks now. 

If the tank was contaminated 5 days ago, very likely there would be some residual DPF still in the tank.  Concentration would not go from "enough to do damage to an engine" to zero in even a couple of tanker truck loads.  Also, remember that DEF is 67% distilled water.  Water is heavier than diesel so would go to the bottom of the storage tank so less likely to "turn over" with diesel added to the tank.

And, if this occurred to others, that state agency is the one they as well as he should have contacted.

[kaypsmith]

It seems to me that if the diesel tank at the filling station would need to be many gallons for the pump to pick it up and move to a vehicle tank. DEF weighs more than 9# per gallon, and diesel weighs 7.05 gallons and will not mix. The station pick up located at the bottom of the tank is several inches off of the bottom. Brett beat me to the save key so won out on almost the same reply. As he pointed out, the state agency should be contacted for investigation, and they will certainly do just that if a complaint is filed.

[elkhartjim]

55 minutes ago, manholt said:

FIVE.  Just make sure it's not over 3 months old...DEF has a 90 day life!

DEF will degrade over time depending on temperature and exposure to sun light. Expectations for shelf life as defined by ISO Spec 22241-3 are the minimum expectations for shelf life when stored at constant temperatures. If stored between 10 and 90 deg F, shelf life will easily be one year.

I read it on the internet....

[manholt]

If it's on Al Gore's  internet ...then  your probably right & I got it confused, with Tequila pickled, water melon! 

[manholt]

Per Ford, Ram, Chevy and GMC.  The most common mistake made, is by people who have aux fuel tanks, is to put the DEF in the aux tank by mistake!  Since the aux tank is not used as much as the main tank, it can be easily overlooked.

Per the Internet...

[ispjs]

15 hours ago, manholt said:

Per Ford, Ram, Chevy and GMC.  The most common mistake made, is by people who have aux fuel tanks, is to put the DEF in the aux tank by mistake!  Since the aux tank is not used as much as the main tank, it can be easily overlooked.

Per the Internet...

His aux fuel tank is aftermarket in the bed of his truck.  I don't think it was driver error.  He would have had to pull the small DEF nozzle from the pump and use it to fill his DEF tank, then switch it and put a little in his diesel truck tank, then reach up in the bed of his truck and put a little more in the aux tank.  The Dodge dealer pulled samples from both his aux tank and truck diesel tank and they were both contaminated with DEF.  

If he did do what I described above then my friend was having a stroke and not only the truck, but he would not have made it another 100 miles down the road!

[kaypsmith]

One other possibility, he may have met with a terrible prankster up to no good, and unfortunately there are some scum out there that will do such deeds. Not taking up for Pilot/FlyingJ, only stating sad but true facts. I hope that he does in fact report to the proper authorities and is able to get relief for all the troubles. Wishing good luck to come for the poor soul, as this is a tragic situation for anyone to have to go through.

[elkhartjim]

Kay may be on to something. Did he ever leave his truck after fueling? These are the same people that will pull the pin(s) on your towbar.

 

[manholt]

They also are the one's that will take your lug caps & center cap off your wheels, thinking they can make $$$.  $38 for the set, but a nuisance!!  Twice, in 2 weeks!

[rayin]

This same subject by the same author is ongoing on irv2.com. I think if this was an error by Pilot we would be reading something about it by now. All we have now is 2nd hand information = hearsay. 

[manholt]

Generally, I would agree with you.  Until I hear differently, my belief is still with the ex LEO!

[ispjs]

On ‎11‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 3:30 PM, elkhartjim said:

Kay may be on to something. Did he ever leave his truck after fueling? These are the same people that will pull the pin(s) on your towbar.

 

This could be a possibility.  I suspect something similar happened to me when we were in the mountains on our motorcycle this fall.  Pulled into a Mobile station outside of Pigeon Forge with two other bikes to get gas.  When we left mine ran like crap and continued to do so for the next 2 days.  Finally had to take it in to a dealership and they found dirt and junk inside the tank, filter, and fuel fill sack.  The only way that could have happened was if some jerk had stuffed mud, sand, or something else down the nozzle before hanging it up.  Now I tip the nozzle down and tap it on the pump island before sticking it in my vehicles to fuel.

[ispjs]

21 hours ago, RayIN said:

This same subject by the same author is ongoing on irv2.com. I think if this was an error by Pilot we would be reading something about it by now. All we have now is 2nd hand information = hearsay. 

Actually I posted this incident, or what I know about it from my friend, on 4 RV related forums.  Based on numerous factors I am still about 90% certain that the contaminated fuel came from the pump and was not caused by "driver error".   As I have already mentioned to Carl C., my buddy is the type of person that doesn't mind laughing at himself and I'm pretty sure he would have been straight with me instead of stretching things.

By posting on different forums I never intended to attack Pilot stations.  Even though I will probably avoid that particular one up on I-65, I still use them almost exclusively.  Heck, we did over 600 miles last Friday to get from Robertsdale AL to N. Ft. Myers and I fueled at a Pilot and then a Flying J.

My buddies last text indicated that the adjuster/investigator from Progressive had been to the Dodge dealership.  After talking to everyone, inspecting the damaged parts, looking at the fuel samples, they decided to cover the repairs.  He was hoping the parts would be in late Friday or at least by Monday morning.

[kaypsmith]

 

58 minutes ago, ISPJS said:

My buddies last text indicated that the adjuster/investigator from Progressive had been to the Dodge dealership.  After talking to everyone, inspecting the damaged parts, looking at the fuel samples, they decided to cover the repairs.  He was hoping the parts would be in late Friday or at least by Monday morning.

This is great news!

[rayin]

ISPJS, after searching the internet for similar problems, I must admit I may have jumped to a conclusion and stuck with it despite your confidence it was a Pilot supplier fuel problem.

  Contaminated fuel is apparently not limited to Pilot, as these numerous search results reveal, using just one set of search parameters. Aircraft JP fuel sample 1/2 water after crash, is one that stands out. Another incident was jet fuel contaminated with DEF, jets do not use DEF.