Salt in the Gas Tank of 2003 HOnda Odyssey

[twiggy]

Someone vandalized my

Topic

[ssd16]

You didn’t mention what other damage was done to the car. Is your brother-in-law mechanically inclined? It all comes down to how much it would cost him to put the car right on his own. If he can do the work himself then it may be worth it.

As far as the possible damage to the gas tank from the salt, I don’t know. As a minimum I would remove the tank, clean it out and replace the fuel pump. I would also blow the fuel out of the lines from the engine on back, and clean out/replace the filler hose as it will only re-contaminate the tank on the next fill.

[twiggy]

The other damage to the car, beside broken windshield, is cosmetic where the paint job was keyed all around.

[skim3544]

If you did not start the car, then this isn’t going to be too bad. You want to take the gas tank off and drain. You can pump out the tank first as much fuel as possible, then lower the gas tank and take care of the rest. This does get little bit dangerous because gas sucked out like this will cause a lot of fumes and is very flammable.

[dreamer2355]

I’m really sorry to hear what happened. If there is anything i can do for you, let me know.

If you live anywhere close to me, i would definitely help you out as needed.

If the vehicle has not been started, i would have the gas tank professionally cleaned (if you have that option in your area) and i would also go as far as replacing the complete fuel pump unit which obviously includes pump, sock, sender and so forth.

I would also think about removing the fuel filler neck and make sure there is no salt sediment built up around there.

Also check all the fuel lines too.

I still cant believe someone would do something like this…

[EricTheCarGuy]

You’re in luck (well not the part about being vandalized), I think that vintage van still has a drain plug on the gas tank for this very thing, if that’s the case just remove the plug (17mm) in the bottom of the tank, drain it out and fill it with new. See what happens after that I suppose. If you don’t have a drain plug I wouldn’t drop the tank as that’s a real pain, I’d try and find a siphon and get the gas out that way rather than dropping the tank, in fact I believe there is an access plate to the fuel pump under the rear seats that you can use to access the top of the tank where you can remove the fuel pump and look down inside the tank itself to see what you’re up against.

The irony of this is that Honda has always had access to their fuel pumps from inside the vehicle so you don’t have to drop the tank to get to them and they have the LEAST amount of trouble with fuel pumps, on other makes with more frequent fuel pump failures you have to drop the tank to get to the pumps.

[twiggy]

Thanks for your helpful replies. I will talk to my brother in law and advise him. Depending on what the ins co does and he decides to by this car back I will be helping him and getting dirty. I will keep you posted.

[gaseousmercury]

Salt is not soluble in nonpolar solvents such as any petroleum products like gas or diesel. That said my suggestion would be to remove the fuel pump from the inside and use a siphon to “Vacuum” out the salt. you can simply use some tubing and siphon into bucket. If you have an aquarium vacuum you could use that too. Don’t worry about stirring the salt up. It will simply settle in a few moments, much faster than in water. Depending on what size the grains of salt were I would doubt much of any got through into the tank itself.

Are you sure it’s salt and not sugar? I ask because sugar’s solubility and chemical behavior is somewhat different is gasoline.

Keep us posted

[twiggy]

Sorry about the delay in updating you guys, but the insurance company declared the van a total loss due to the sum of the damage and offered $6000 to settle it. I did relay the above information to him but he decided to put the 6k down on a 2005 Honda Oddessey with about 60k miles on it.

I advised him to clean out his garage and park nightly in there, so at least he took that part of my advice.

[EricTheCarGuy]

Thanks for the update, I would have loved to get my hands on that van however it would have made a nice ‘project’.

[dreamer2355]

Thanks for posting the update!

[hbvx]

Please, tell your BIL to replace the PCV valve or at least check it on that 2005 Odyssey. Known to have some serious deposit issues if the PCV system fails to perform on this engine, long threads about it on BITOG from a respected poster with pick, etc.

Just as a tip or a heads up, among other maintenance due on an ’05 by now, even at ‘relatively’ low 60,000 miles. I’d change out the ATF, especially if DW-1 wasn’t the factory used fluid, etc.

Caring for his new ‘used’ van right away will make it easier to forget the way the old one went.T)

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