[Pokemon_2047]

Hello Members,

This is my first post on this platform. In case of any mistakes, please ignore them.
I want to share my ordeal related to my car and would seek your suggestions and opinions on this matter.

I had purchased Mahindra Bolero Neo N8 on December 2023. I have driven the car for ~7000 km. The first major servicing at 10,000 km is yet to be done. I had been refueling diesel from nearby pumps of Indian oil and Reliance.
In September 2024, I faced a problem with my car. There was noise coming from the engine on ignition. Next day, I took the car to the nearest Mahindra service center. They investigated the issue by opening the whole engine. They found the following issue

Issues

1. Coolant was leaking in the Exhaust gas re-circulation (EGR) system via the EGR valve.
2. EGR recirculates exhaust gas back into the gas chamber in order to re-burn the exhaust gas. This ensures that the remaining pollutants are burnt resulting in less pollution. Coolant leaked via EGR valve. EGR filter was also damaged and was leaking coolant.
3. Since coolant leaked into EGR system. From there, the coolant entered into the combustion chamber. Because of this the piston connecting rod got bent.

The above issues were found. In order to find the reason of above issues, the diesel was sent for testing. In the lab report, following was found.

Root cause

1. High chlorine content was found in diesel and the engine oil.
2. Chlorine damaged the EGR system, causing the coolant to leak into engine via EGR.
3. As per service center, many times fuel pump owners clean their fuel storage tanks using bleaching powder. This causes presence of chlorine in diesel.

Now the Mahindra is saying that since I as a customer have filled contaminated diesel, it is my fault which caused the engine damage. Mahindra is paying the engine replacement cost (since the car is in warranty) but the replacement cost of parts like EGR, turbocharger (which is pretty significant) will be borne by me.

After facing the whole situation, I have the following queries

1. Can chlorine content in diesel severely damage a BS6 engine?
2. How can chlorine be found in engine oil? As far as I know, piston rings don't allow engine oil to come in contact with diesel in the combustion chamber.
3. My car is still in warranty. Although Mahindra is bearing the cost to replace the engine, should I be paying any repair cost for the remaining parts? As a customer, how would anyone know whether diesel from a certain fuel pump is contaminated or not!
4. Has anyone else faced a similar issue? Because impurities in diesel raises serious questions on companies like Indian oil and Reliance.

I will take up the matter with Mahindra. If nothing fruitful comes out, then I have the option to go with insurance.

Thanks.

[Blooming Flower]

Chlorine analysis in fuel oil can be performed in many ways viz. bomb calorimeter, X-ray fluorescence, potentiometer titration etc .

The worldwide standard for field testing for the presence of chlorine in fuel is ASTM D5384, which is followed by all the major fuel producers in India too. While around 1-100 ppm chlorine (in the form of chloride) is std. in diesel the result can vary with different methods. I am interested to know how the service centre tested it, which lab, and the numerical value they found.

Now coming back to your queries.

1. Can chlorine content in diesel severely damage a BS6 engine?

A high amount of chlorine in fuel can cause severe corrosion/ damage to any engine. BS6 engine is not much different, rather the significant difference is in the exhaust part.

2. How can chlorine be found in engine oil?

Fuel, engine oil and coolant are 3 separate circuits. One comes in contact with another if and only if there's a failure in one or more seals or gaskets of the engine and its sub-components. Bad quality fuel may cause such damage in the long run, no doubt.

3. My car is still in warranty. Although Mahindra is bearing the cost to replace the engine, should I be paying any repair cost for the remaining parts? As a customer, how would anyone know whether diesel from a certain fuel pump is contaminated or not!

Very dicey situation. You have to be persistent with them to get everything replaced under warranty. Resorting to legal procedures often prolongs such things with lesser fruits!

4. Because impurities in diesel raises serious questions on companies like Indian oil and Reliance

Of late, a few videos have been widely circulated in social media about an IOCL and HP pump where water contamination happened in the storage tank in the fuel station itself. Few customers were affected by it; their engines were damaged. The root cause (cleaning tank with bleaching power/chloride) if established well with the objective value from the testing is worrisome and lethal for any engine. One such video link:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqi4i4HTx2M

)

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by Pokemon_2047

As a customer, how would anyone know whether diesel from a certain fuel pump is contaminated or not!
Has anyone else faced a similar issue? Because impurities in diesel raises serious questions on companies like Indian oil and Reliance.

This is distressing to hear.

I had faced diesel trouble once with my January 2018 manufactured TUV 300 in 2019. But my car's troubles were restricted to a clogged fuel filter. And it wasn't dissolved contamination in my case - there were insoluble particles in the diesel.

The trouble was traced to the IOCL pump that I used to fill up all my vehicles in. Needless to say, even the petrol vehicles at home faced troubles shortly thereafter. On the whole, it has been my experience with bad fuel in multiple IOCL outlets and I have heard feedback as well to avoid IOCL wherever possible. There are exceptions to the rule, I know. But IOCL is taboo in my books.

As to your situation, I honestly do not know if your insurer will bear the cost of turbo and EGR replacement. If you have engine protection coverage, does that coverage apply to the engine unit alone? In this case will the claims inspector see that Mahindra is anyway replacing the engine and say they don't need to do anything more for you? That's my fear. Will await other members' inputs - hoping I'm wrong.

[Jeroen]

Chlorine damaged the EGR system, causing the coolant to leak into engine via EGR.

A couple of thoughts. I think it is crucial to understand what happened here. How can chlorine cause the coolant to leak into the engine.

A bend piston suggests piston knock. That means there was a significant leak causing coolant built up on the piston.

Also bearing in mind that your car is very low mileage. Sure high chlorine content can do some damage. But your car has only 7000 km on it.

I find it hard to believe that chlorine could cause such a huge problem in such a short time.

Gut feeling, there is more to this case.

Jeroen

[Pokemon_2047]

Thanks for your responses.

Originally Posted by Blooming Flower

I am interested to know how the service centre tested it, which lab, and the numerical value they found.

I am attaching the lab reports of both engine oil and Diesel respectively. The test was conducted at Mahindra Research valley Chennai. They haven't mentioned the type of test conducted. I will check with them and get back on this.

Engine oil


Diesel

Originally Posted by locusjag

If you have engine protection coverage, does that coverage apply to the engine unit alone?

I have insurance from Tata AIG. I didn't take engine protection coverage from Tata AIG. Because Mahindra was giving 3 years warranty on engine. In case of contaminated fuel, I am banking on the below clause of Tata AIG.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I find it hard to believe that chlorine could cause such a huge problem in such a short time.

Yes, this is my exact concern. It is painful to believe as a first time owner of a car, that chlorine can damage engine parts to such an extent. The car is not even one year old. As per the service center, chlorine damaged the EGR. There was leakage in the EGR cooler, causing coolant to leak into the engine combustion chamber. I will get back with the video showing the leakage. This is what I know so far.

Are the engine parts so fragile, that they get damaged even before the completion of their first major servicing (which is at 10,000 km in case of Mahindra)! I searched online for similar issues related for chlorine contamination, but I could not find one. That's why I have come to this community for guidance.

[Blooming Flower]

Originally Posted by Pokemon_2047

..They haven't mentioned the type of test conducted. I will check with them and get back on this.
..Yes, this is my exact concern. It is painful to believe as a first time owner of a car, that chlorine can damage engine parts to such an extent..

They have mentioned the type of test. I can see from the report that they opted for energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence method from the 3 types of testings as I mentioned in my previous post. This is a very accurate method of testing. Now 133 mg/kg value isn't too high! Also with 7k km odo, this seems a bit improbable. The gasket leaking can happen due to bad combustion or corrosion from chloride with prolonged usage. There should be something more to it as coolant residue was found in the EGR line.

I think the root cause investigation is goofed up.

It's also intriguing if the contaminated diesel contains 133 mg/kg chloride how come engine oil (which is from Mahindra as mentioned in the report) contains 356 mg/kg?! How is it thrice when the source is the diesel as they claimed?

[Piyush0307]

Disheartened to know your ordeal.

Not an expert on the issue, so couldn't help but would like to know is there anything we can do to avoid such situations.

Just a rookies thought, if the Diesel is having excess Chlorine content, does this change the density of Diesel...?????