Leaking Fuel Tank..What Would You Do?

RegWorts

One of the recent threads discussing breakdown services reminded me of a problem I had a few years ago...and the difficulty I had in solving it.

The youngest son had a Nova and was off on holiday the following morning so he filled his petrol tank and parked it in the street ready for an early departure.

I went out around 11pm to post a letter and smelt petrol , tracing the source back to the Nova fuel tank which was dripping out petrol fairly fast into the gutter and down the drain.

Not sure what to do , I put a large tray under the dripping tank and then I rang my breakdown company who promised to send someone out urgently.

In the meantime I attempted to collect the dripping petrol into containers.

The breakdown truck arrived after about 25 minutes and said the only thing he could do was to take it to a local garage to drain the tank as he had no empty containers....but assumed that the closed garage would have !!

I said that would be too dangerous as we couldn`t stop the dripping petrol en route or leave the car anywhere overnight ...so he suggested ringing the fire brigade as they presumably have to deal with accidents so will have the resources to deal with this sort of problem. (I assumed that included a collection of empty containers in order to drain fuel tanks )

The Fire Brigade arrived and said they had nothing to put the petrol in so spent around 45 minutes attempting to block the leak using some type of petrol resistant putty...which didn`t work at all.

I said what would you do in an accident , and they said wash it away with gallons of water into the drain!!!...What an amazing answer! .

When asked if that was the best thing to do , bearing in mind the explosive nature of petrol especially in a sewer or storm drain , all I got was the shrug of the shoulders....so the Fire Brigade left me to it.

So there we were at around 1 am with a dripping petrol tank and our only option was to try and catch the drips and also try to syphon petrol out...but the biggest problem now was that we had run out of empty containers to put the drained/syphoned petrol in .

Fortunately I`d got a mate who had been involved with Scout camping in previous years so I rang him (at 1am) to see if he`d got any empty containers. Fortunately he had a couple of large water containers so he dropped them off and we managed to drain the tank so that the fuel level was now below the leak...and problem temporarily solved until the morning.

I was amazed that the Fire Brigade didn`t have the facilities to deal with this type of problem and their cavalier attitude to dealing with fuel spillages.

What would YOU have done in similar circumstances ?

vikingaero

Nova's and Corsa B's had steel fuel tanks which rusted.

You could have called AA Fuel Assist or similar to drain the tank.

I'm not sure if the AA Breakdown service or the Fire Brigade was appropriate given than the rusty fuel tank was a maintenance issue.

forgotmyname

I would have wondered why i was not notified of a rusty tank at MOT or service time.

Why would you not let them take the car to a garage to have it drained?

It couldnt have been pouring out that fast or it would have been empty by the time you had phoned them.

As for the fire brigade having containers then no i wouldnt expect them to have containers, By the time they
are called to fuel leakage problems its already spread over the road anyway and washing it down with gallons
of water would dilute it enough to be safe to drink.

Not quite the hazard you think, Its more of a risk as a slightly damp patch on the tank than a puddle on the floor.

Drop a match into a puddle of petrol and be surprised when it goes out with no fire or a bang.

Strider590

RegWorts wrote: »

I was amazed that the Fire Brigade didn`t have the facilities to deal with this type of problem and their cavalier attitude to dealing with fuel spillages.

What would YOU have done in similar circumstances ?

Adding a cup of petrol to a river of water is highly unlikely to cause a problem.

vikingaero

Petrol vapour is more flammable. If the petrol has been out long enough and diluted then there won't be a problem.

auroan

Why didn't you just go to a local 24hr super market and buy a container (or two)?

s_b

i had this a few years ago in a bmw i had just filled up
i considered phoning the fire brigade but after the last time i used them i considered billy smarts circus would have been more use than the clowns i got
all this was before petrol assist and 24 hour garages and mobile phones though
i drove the streets of the town to some waste land drove up a mound and let the fuel get lower than the leak
then drove to my appointment

moral of the story dont buy cars laden up for 2 years will metal fuel tanks like i dida

grizzly1911

Hose down if couldn't capture.

Drive it someone quiet and let it leak out.

As others have said it is the vapour that is the biggest risk, soaking into a field or washing away whilst not environmentally PC would limit risk.

There isn't a lot you can do once they start to leak IME.

poppasmurf_bewdley

I had a slight split in my old Zephyr 6 petrol tank, which was sealed with some cellulose putty. The problem never returned.

epninety

Cant see what the problem is... either go buy enough jerry cans or bang on your neighbours doors and ask who wants a free tank of petrol in exchange for giving you a hand?

RegWorts

Thanks for the comments

I would have wondered why i was not notified of a rusty tank at MOT or service time.

Not excessively rusty in appearance as it had a protective coating (possibly underseal type paint ) and if I remember correctly the problem was something to do with the fuel gauge sender unit seal.
Obviously nothing spotted when serviced or MOTd

Why would you not let them take the car to a garage to have it drained?

It was 1am in the middle of the night..nowhere open?

It couldnt have been pouring out that fast or it would have been empty by the time you had phoned them.

It was a full petrol tank that was dripping fairly fast , not pouring out.(The smell of petrol was over powering) It was still half full when we`d finished syphoning around 2 > 3 hours later

As for the fire brigade having containers then no I wouldnt expect them to have containers, By the time they are called to fuel leakage problems its already spread over the road anyway and washing it down with gallons of water would dilute it enough to be safe to drink.

I would expect them to have empty containers.They have sealing putty and portable /flexible booms to retain any leakage . It`s not the 10 gallons of petrol I was worried about but the high vapour smell in the area , including the nearby drain.

You could have called AA Fuel Assist or similar to drain the tank.

I`m not in the AA so not aware of AA Fuel Assist...and neither the breakdown nor fire brigade mentioned it....but it was a few years ago so perhaps it didn`t exist then.

Why didn't you just go to a local 24hr super market and buy a container (or two)?

There is no local 24 hour supermarket. There was potentially around 10 gallons of petrol in the tank so that is a lot of gallon containers !! ...and the petrol was leaking so there was an immediate urgency

Drive it someone quiet and let it leak out.

Where? The front of your house?

That would mean moving the car ...apart from being anti-social and possibly dangerous there is a possibility of being caught (or spotted doing it )+ prosecuted by the Enviromental folk on the local council

Remember the scenario...Middle of the night, pitch black , nowhere open , trying to find empty containers and hose (for syphoning) with a potential petrol bomb on the front of your house (complete with worried wife , family and neighbours ) so whatever action that was necessary had to be carried out there and then .Moving the vehicle was not a considered option in case of fire or explosive risk as there was a heavy smell of petrol .

Talking about it now , in the cold light of day, then it perhaps doesn`t sound too serious , but believe me , at the time I was extremely worried !