Water in fuel tank

[poloplayer]

Hey guys, The Suzuki forums not very useful, so I thought I'd ask here since everyone here is so awesome anyway, my gf was in a bit of a rush as she filled up her 09 swift, and as you do sometimes, spilt a few drops on the paint work below it. She then used the water can to wash it off, but forgot to put the fuel cap on before doing so long story short, she started hearing a very slight buzzing noise a few minutes into the drive home. My question is, assuming that theres only a little bit of water that got in, would everything be ok other than the temporary noise? She did fill it all the way (40L tank) so I'm assuming it'd be diluted quite well. Cheers in advance

[gareth_oau]

in the "olden days" if you got water in your tank you'd throw in a bottle of meths to help burn/disolve the water.

do some reaearch but I suspect that will fix your problem, if there isnt too much water.

two other thoughts: 1/ water doesnt compress very well, so you dont want it getting in your cylinders, and 2/ if you leave it in the tank too long, if you have a metal tank, it will go rusty inside, reducing the life of your tank, but also creating havoc with your fuel filters

[Spyda]

in the "olden days" if you got water in your tank you'd throw in a bottle of meths to help burn/disolve the water.

do some reaearch but I suspect that will fix your problem, if there isnt too much water.

two other thoughts: 1/ water doesnt compress very well, so you dont want it getting in your cylinders, and 2/ if you leave it in the tank too long, if you have a metal tank, it will go rusty inside, reducing the life of your tank, but also creating havoc with your fuel filters

I wouldnt think water would corode metal faster than fuel and who has a metal petrol tank anyway?

If you are really worried just flush the tank, you'll loose 40L of fuel but might save alot of hastle later on.

[bigfoot]

in the "olden days" if you got water in your tank you'd throw in a bottle of meths to help burn/disolve the water.

+1 on the metho

who has a metal petrol tank anyway?

ummm pretty much everyone

[brad]

+2 to Metho. Add a litre to every fill for the next 3 or 4 tanks.

Also, some Nulon Total Fuel System Cleaner wouldn't hurt either

[Spyda]

+1 on the metho



ummm pretty much everyone

My mk1,mk2,polo, merc 230, vt commodore, vs commodore, vx commodore, 180sx, bora all have plasic fuel tanks....or at least they look and feel like plastic from the outside.

[Peter Jones]

MK1 tanks are steel. I've never seen a plastic one.

[Transporter]

Also there are other metal parts in the fuel system than the tank, which cannot be just removed and flushed. IMO, Interject products are the best when you have water contaminated fuel.

[poloplayer]

Thanks guys, so i just chuck on a liter of any old methylated spirits?

[brad]

Yes, but it would have been better to do it 5 days back......

Also, use e10 fuels for a while - the ethanol will soak up water too

[seat]

Agreement on 500ml to 1 litre of metho into the tank. Water and metho are missible, ie they mix together, so problem will solve itself providing the water amount is not excessive.

I had not heard of the E10 trick, but it sounds worthwhile for the next couple of fills just to make sure all that nasty H20 is gone.

[poloplayer]

Cheers guys

[K1W1]

Just to explain what happens for the benefit of future readers.
Petrol floats on water. The pick up for the car fuel system is in the bottom of the tank so if you have water in the tank it will sink to the bottom, be sucked through the fuel filter and potentially hydraulic the engine.
Adding meths causes the surface tension between the water and fuel to break down and the three products to mix so the meths/water/fuel mixture passes harmlessly through the engine where the meths and fuel burn and the water is just evaporated out the exhaust as steam.
There will be no issues with such a small amount of water causing rust in the system either.