School boy error - how not to dismantle a car!

[gumby6371]

As some of you are aware I bought Grey's 110 for spares or repair.

When I got it there was a distinct lack of critical fluids so I never turned the engine over, the body damage was too much for me so decided to strip it.
With ignition on the dash lit up nicely with the added bonus of the fuel gauge showing a virtually full tank!

Carried on stripping bits with the warm feeling that when mine hit the redlight I had a good few weeks of go juice sitting in the breaker.

Time came to drain the fuel so I armed myself with a couple of drums and some pipe, detatched the fuel lines after the filter and added the extension to run nicely into the waiting container with the help of the lift pump.

Key in..
first click..
nothing
second click...
still nothing!
third click...
starter clicks away to itself!
look down at dismantled dash
realise it might be helpful if the immobilizer wiring was still connected to something
swear a lot and call myself a cock

At this point I considered the 12 volt direct to the lift pump method, realised all my tools were 3 miles away at home and I only have the odds and sods bits I keep in the boot. Grabbed a hefty cross head screw driver and smacked it through the tank.

Good news is I got somewhere between 60 and 65 litres out
Bad news there is quite a bad diesel stain on my mom's drive

Lesson for today...when draining fuel from a breaker make it the first job and not the last!
Here endeth the lesson

[Welly]

Oo-er I bet that looked something like one of those oil tanker disasters still you can tell your Mum it'll make pretty colours when it rains

BTW when changing my Volvo Battery a few weeks ago I didn't remove the old one but leave the New Battery locked in the boot (which needs electricity to open it) no that never happened.

[scotty73]

So how do you properly drain the diesel out then? Idiot guide please I got 3/4 of a tank to get out.

[gumby6371]

My plan was to detatch the pipe coming out of the fuel filter and extend it into a suitable drum/container thus removing as much tank sludge as possible. I'm not entirely sure if it's a timer or pressure sensor is so it may activate the lift pump for a short period then shut off but as I'd disconnected the immobiliser I never found out.

I'm guessing that even if it pumps a litre or so through then shuts off it will still be quicker and cleaner than the poke a hole in the tank method tho.
Lift pumps do move a decent amount of fuel during normal start up so it has to be worth a go and if you unplug and not cut the fuel lines you can always put them back if it doesn't work.

I you can park the cars close enough you might even be able to pump it straight into the new car

[scotty73]

My plan was to detatch the pipe coming out of the fuel filter and extend it into a suitable drum/container thus removing as much tank sludge as possible. I'm not entirely sure if it's a timer or pressure sensor is so it may activate the lift pump for a short period then shut off but as I'd disconnected the immobiliser I never found out.

I'm guessing that even if it pumps a litre or so through then shuts off it will still be quicker and cleaner than the poke a hole in the tank method tho.
Lift pumps do move a decent amount of fuel during normal start up so it has to be worth a go and if you unplug and not cut the fuel lines you can always put them back if it doesn't work.

I you can park the cars close enough you might even be able to pump it straight into the new car

I was wondering if i could pump it straight to the C5 with an aquarium air hose or similar... Will find out soon enough.

[gumby6371]

You could remove the lift pump and take it straight out of the tank like that but I doubt you'd get anything down the filler tube. They normally have anti syphon bits in there.

[scotty73]

My C5 seems to have anti fill up bits too takes about 10ltrs a time.

Here's my syphoning video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSwyRLd ... e=youtu.be