Gas station attendant’s mistake destroys Jeep Commander engine and station will have to pay R$ 154 thousand

A gas station was ordered by the Justice of Mato Grosso do Sul to pay R$ 154,893.20 to the owner of a Jeep Commander that had its engine destroyed after a gas station attendant put Arla 32 in the diesel tank of the SUV. The sentence is from the 2nd Civil and Criminal Court of Camapuã, signed by Judge Felipe Brigido Lage, and was released by the Campo Grande News website.

Of the total, R$ 139,893.20 correspond to material damages and R$ 15 thousand to moral damages. An insurer is jointly and severally liable for the material portion, with a limit of R$ 50 thousand provided for in the policy; The moral damage was exclusively with the post.

The case happened on June 10, 2023, when the driver was traveling from Campo Grande to Ponta Porã and stopped to complete the Arla 32 of the Jeep Commander Limited TD380, with a 2.0 turbodiesel engine with 170 hp and 38,7 kgfm. The SUV had about 20 thousand kilometers and was still under warranty.

Engine on and nozzle wrong

According to the lawsuit, the driver parked near the reagent pump and walked away for a few moments to fetch water, leaving the engine running so that the family could remain in the car with the air conditioning on. It was during this interval that the gas station attendant poured the Arla 32 into the nozzle of the diesel tank.

The plaintiff reported that the SUV turned off on its own shortly after and began to accuse impurity in the fuel system. Also according to the report, the employee did not immediately warn about changing the nozzles and suggested filling the tank with diesel to dilute the product.

Taken to the dealership, the Jeep had major damage confirmed to the engine. The expert opinion of the process concluded that the entry of Arla 32 into the feeding system caused hydraulic chocking. The report pointed out two failures in the service: the supply with the engine running and, as a determining cause, the use of the diesel nozzle for the reagent.

Arla 32 is non-fuel and has its own reservoir. It is a urea solution used in the exhaust of newer diesel vehicles to reduce the emission of nitrogen oxides, a requirement of Proconve. As it acts in the after-treatment of gases, it cannot be mixed with diesel.

Repair consumed R$ 125 thousand

The largest slice of the condemnation corresponds to the repair: R$ 125 thousand paid to the concessionaire. In addition, R$ 5,040 for the rental of another vehicle and R$ 9,853.20 for the anticipated production of expert evidence.

Upon analyzing the evidence, the judge recognized a failure in the provision of the service and ruled out the driver’s responsibility. According to the ruling, the refill of the reagent at the fuel tank nozzle caused “serious mechanical problems in the engine of the plaintiff’s vehicle, with major damage.”

To fix the moral damage, the decision took into account that the consumer spent more than six months without using the car, did not receive sufficient assistance from the station and had to go to court twice: first to produce the anticipated expert opinion and then to ask for compensation.