Water in Petrol

John from Wilton

Water in Petrol – Hi I filled my car up with ZX Premium petrol at Z Petone at 10:34 on Sunday night.
By Wednesday morning my fears were confirmed, that something was not right, when I rang Simon at Brendon Motors (Karori) Ltd and he advised that the reason my car was not performing as it had been prior to my filling up, was that there would be water in the petrol. He said that is was a fairly common problem. It is something I have never struck before in nearly 60 years of driving. Shades of – “Your turn will come”. Maybe time to buy a LOTO ticket!
To fixed the problem Simon said “the old way was to put some “meths” in the tank but that could damage the seals. I could put a fuel cleaner into the tank, but results could be uncertain. The most satisfactory way was to have the tank removed, cleaned out, re-installed, and fresh (hopefully uncontaminated) petrol put in the tank. Cost could be in the order of $400+”
I have filed a complaint with Z and had an email from it’s Group Product Quality Technical Advisor.
I have been advised that they will look into the problem but it could take “14 days to complete the investigation.” which is very frustrating when Simon is advising not to use the car with that petrol in it.
Z Petone advised its’ tanks were filled on Sunday. If there is anyone out there who, from last Sunday on, purchased ZX Premium at Z Petone, and have noticed a drop off in the performance of their vehicle, most noticeable when going uphill, then please complain to Z and contact me because the more people that complain to Z, the less likely they can fob us off. If you know of anyone who may buy petrol from Z Petone then please share this post with them.
Thanks for any help you can give.