SWMBO's ex-astra is about to go to the Vauxhall graveyard, and is about 3/4 full of fuel.
Is syphoning it out through the fuel filler a viable possibility, or is it likely to have some anti-syphon trap.
If that can't be done, is it as simple as taking the rear squab out to get at the fuel gauge sender unit ?
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 13 Jul 11 at 00:38
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A difficult car to drain, no way will you get a pipe down the filler neck, there's a very tight U bend just as it enters the tank if my memory serves well.
You can go under the rear seat, then depending on design it will either be 6 x 8mm bolts to undo the sender unit, or a tapered surrounding locking ring that will need to be shifted anti clockwise, hammer and mighty screw driver, to knock it round and release the unit, which will still have a thick O ring holding it quite tightly, so lever it up.
In either case you can then lift the sender an inch and feed a pipe in to retrieve the liquid gold.
If you want to reseat the O ring, put some spit or wd40 on the O ring to lubricate it as you push the sender back in.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Wed 18 May 11 at 13:24
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why not just cut the fuel feed pipe?
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Both pipes go in and out at the sender unit, top of the tank, short of puncturing the tank, or using an external fuel pump of some sort on the supply pipe at engine end there really is no other way.
With some cars you can disconnect the return pipe and run the engine to drain the tank, but these VX's cut out, probably a safety feature.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Wed 18 May 11 at 13:36
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>> You can go under the rear seat, then depending on design it will either be
>> 6 x 8mm bolts to undo the sender unit, or a tapered surrounding locking ring
>> that will need to be shifted anti clockwise, hammer and mighty screw driver, to knock
>> it round and release the unit,
Exactly what I did to drain a full fuel tank when my late dad wrote off his Astra-G within 20 miles of filling it up. Had to knock the locking ring off as mentioned. I made sure I had a fire extinguisher to hand as well.
Having lost a full tank of fuel to the insurer / body shop when I wrote off my previous Vectra-C, I wasn't letting it happen again with another car that belonged to the family.
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I shall have a look this evening, and if it looks like it will take more than 10 minutes, tough....
I mean, we both drive diesels now..........
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Funnily enough I realised the other day my spare Vectra has about 9 gallons in the tank. I was wondering if I could connect a 12V feed to the fuel pump (which is in the tank), and then connect a pipe to the outlet and off I go.
I would of course ensure the feed to the pump was activated from under the bonnet not on top of the tank as a spark there might not be a good idea.
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No harm in trying that SC, otherwise as far as i can recall the Vectra is similar set up to the Astra, and much obliged to DD for confirming my memory hasn't quite disappeard.
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If it's about to go to the graveyard, why not do what the scrotes do? Bash a screwdriver through the bottom of the tank.
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I worked at a scrapyard, briefly, about 20 years ago. We had a small electric fuel pump, a car battery and several medium size drums, and used to drain the fuel out of every car that came in.
There was enough for about 5 gallons for each member of staff, gratis, every week :)
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I once bought a fuel tank for a wedgie Princess from a scrappy for about a tenner. The donor vehicle had obviously had a new tank fitted, shortly before driving into something like a lamppost, judging it from the front.
These tanks were around the sixteen gallon mark and quite flat.
I had quite a job balancing it with all the petrol sloshing about inside the thing.
I reckon I made a profit on the deal.
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>> If it's about to go to the graveyard, why not do what the scrotes do?
>> Bash a screwdriver through the bottom of the tank.
>>
Funnily enough the only non consumables for that car over the 2 years/60,000 miles I used it as my daily driver were a fuel pump relay and... a new fuel tank. I might want to resurrect it sometime soon so I'm loath to try anything to destructive....yet.
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Vauxhall Astra G Petrol - 99 1600 Draining fuel - -
