Water is a liquid substance same as gasoline but the mixture of the duo in your gas tank is not a good idea at all. But what happens if you put water in a gas tank?
If water gets in your gas tank, it can cause corrosion and rusting of your gas tank which would infiltrate your fuel filter, react with fuel and cause damage to car carburetors and might affect your car engine.
Can You Put Water in a Gas Tank?
The idea of putting water in a gas tank is a bad one and car owners should avoid putting water in their gas tanks. Therefore, you should not put water in a gas tank.
Water can get into your tank mistakenly, even if you don’t put it there which can result from condensation inside the tank, a bad seal cap of your tank, contaminated fuel at the fuel station, and a bad fuel pump.
That’s why it’s important to check your vehicle at regular intervals and ensure that all parts are functioning properly and that you ensure that where you get your fuel from is a safe place that such fuel would not in turn affect your vehicle.
What Happens if You Put Water in a Gas Tank?
If the water gets into your gas tank deliberately or accidental, it can pose a lot of problems for your vehicle ranging from;
- Starting your vehicle becomes difficult because the water will separate from the fuel leaving the water up and the fuel down. Therefore, instead of fuel going into the car carburetor and engine, it’s water that flows which would affect your vehicle and prevent it from starting
- Your vehicle begins to jerk forward, this is a sign of water in your gas tank, when you try to move or speed up on the highway and the vehicle begins to jerk forward and refuse to move as expected
- Rusting in a gas tank is another problem that is associated with water in your gas tank, which can in turn after the engine of your vehicle.
What to Do If You Put Water in a Gas Tank?
The best and most effective way to remove water from your gas tank is to completely drain the water in the tank because this way you can be sure that there’s no water left in the gas tank.
There are also fuel additives that you can add to your fuel tank that can help with removing water from your gas tank.
Note: In case the water in the tank is more than the fuel, just opt for the first option which is to completely drain the gas tank because fuel additives wouldn’t work in that case.
Will Putting Water in a Gas Tank Ruin Engine?
Putting water will ruin and damage your engine, leading to the vehicle jerking and poor performance of the vehicle. The presence prevents combustion and also causes the engine to seize and not perform effectively.
Water can also cause rusting in the gas tank which in turn will damage the engine of the vehicle, which would affect the fuel filter, carburetor, fuel pump, and other aspects of the car which would cost a lot to repair.
Can You Tell If Someone Put Water in Your Gas Tank?
Yes!! It’s sure to know if water gets into your gas tank deliberately by someone or accidentally as a result of so many things as stated earlier.
If you’re using an advanced car, one of the ways to know when water is in your gas tank is that the sign check engine light shows on your vehicle’s dashboard.
Another sign to know if water is in your gas tank is the occurrence of white steam coming from your exhaust when you start your vehicle.
There are a lot of ways to find out if water is in your gas tank and a number of which include;
1. Failure to Start
If the water in your gas tank is so much, you might have a problem starting your vehicle and this will cause damage to the engine and might damage other internal parts of the vehicle.
2. Steam Exhaust
Water in your gas tank will cause evaporation which will lead to steaming. So when you notice white steam in your exhaust pipe, it might be as a result of water in your gas tank.
3. Check Engine Warning Light
Vehicle owners should be attentive to signs and sound that comes out of their vehicle. A typical sign of water in your gas tank is the check engine warning sign on your dashboard.
So when you see signs like check engine on your dashboard be sure to get a mechanic and use an OBD2 scanner to know what exactly is wrong with it.
4. Rough Acceleration
Water in your gas tank can result in rough acceleration of your vehicle.
How Much Water Will Mess Up a Gas Tank?
There’s really no definite answer to this because the water content in the gas tank no matter how small and much can damage the engine of the vehicle. Hence, it’s preferable that you totally avoid water getting into your car at all cost.
As little as a cup or two would affect the fuel filter, fuel pump, and even the carburetor, and definitely, in larger portions, it’ll affect the engine of the car, causing combustion and might make the vehicle not start at all.
That’s why it’s important to check your vehicle at regular intervals and ensure that all parts are functioning properly and that you ensure you buy good fuel from reliable gas stations.
Doing all of this is to avoid water from getting into your gas tank and avoid unnecessary expenses as a result of repair or total change.
Conclusion
Water in your gas tank can result in total damage to your vehicle and result in an expensive repair. Drivers and vehicle owners should ensure that situations that can warrant water getting into their gas tank are totally avoided and ensure that they don’t get contaminated fuel.
Water will ruin and damage your engine, leading to the vehicle jerking and poor performance of the vehicle. This and many more issues can arise if water is found in your gas tank. Avoid this and save your engine.
It is also worthy of note that water can result in rusting of your gas tank, which in turn will damage the engine of the vehicle, and affect the fuel filter, carburetor, fuel pump, and other aspects of the car.