Fellow BMW owners,

This didn't happen to my 525TDS, but it did happen to my Renault Scenic CDi
( a common rail diesel) so I thought I'd ask the experts anyway.

Two weeks ago, I filled up the Scenic, virtually from "empty" (the orange
light had been annoying me), at our local Tesco's.  51 litres of their best
diesel oil, or so I thought.

A little later, on the same day, we all went out for a run in the Scenic.
Stopped it for a few minutes; then it refused to re-start.  In the end, we
got a lift home on the back of a breakdown truck.

Hubby drove the car around for a week, and found that it wouldn't start from
warm, but it would from cold.  Then, 6 days after the first incident, it
conked out entirely.  Our breakdown service took it to a garage in Kingston,
which diagnosed at first (a) burnt-out glow plugs (that didn't fix it) then
(b) broken fuel pump (that sort of fixed it; but read on).

So, £400 lighter, he brought it home on Friday.  I drove it this morning
(Saturday), and found it was kangarooing and spluttering all along the road.

We took it to a Renault dealer, where one of the mechanics sniffed the tank
and said: "that's petrol".   AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGH!!

Now, IF that's the case (and we have yet to get confirmation of the type of
fuel in the tank), do I have any comeback on Tesco's?

I have the following items of proof:

1) A receipt from Tesco's at 10:50 that morning, showing I filled a car up
with 51 litres of diesel.
1a) Proof that I'd filled the BMW up some days earlier, at a different
Tesco's filling station, with 60 litres of diesel.  (NB: 60 won't fit in the
Scenic.  At least, not if you value your shoes.)
2) Proof that we called out First Direct's breakdown service at 4pm that
afternoon;
3) Proof of the mileage of the car at 4pm that day;
4) Proof of the mileage of the car when the place in Kingston returned it;
5) Proof that the above constitutes half a tank of fuel, which is what had
been used in the meantime (ie. that the Kingston garage can't have refilled
it with petrol accidentally)

I rang Tesco's this morning, and they pointed out - not  unreasonably, I
suppose - that if their filling station "diesel" tank had been full of
petrol, they would have already had hundreds of complaints, and mine was in
fact the first query.  However, if my Scenic has found a way of converting
diesel into unleaded, I suppose I'd better call the chancellor, or Harry
Potter, or maybe just pitch up in Dragons' Den.

Any opinions would be welcome.

Jo