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Hi all this is my first post and am hoping for some sound advice on how to fix my issue. I have a 2008 Civic EX 4-Dr. Long story short but yesterday I mistakenly put nearly 2 gallons of water in my fuel tank. I left home and about 1/4 down the road it stalls and suddenly I realized the gas container I used had water in it. So my brother and I push the car back home and I did some research on this site. I removed the rear seat to get at the top of the tank siphoned out the entire tank and put 3-4 gallons of fresh fuel in. Cranked the starter for about 2 minutes and it finally started. Idles fine but when you go to give it gas it will hesitate and the check engine light is flashing. I'm in the process of getting a code reader but in the meantime...is there is only a fuel filter inside the tank and not an inline one?...and I'm thinking the water was flushed through the lines being that the car eventually started so should be good there? Any advice would be great thanks!

 
Rep Power: 518

Welcome.


I had to do this to a Fit a couple weeks ago. Has a couple gallons of water in it, had to drop the tank to get all of that cleaned out.
(I actually have a lot of experience with water in gas tanks...)

I would normally use a fluid evacuator to suck the water from the bottom of the gas tank if possible, this involves being able to tilt the car at various angles to make the water move where it is accessible through the opening for the fuel pump. Sometimes it works, sometimes I really have to drop the tank to get all the water out.


I USED to try to just remove the water and leave the good gasoline.... Not so much these days, I willingly get rid of the gas now because the Alcohol in the fuel can absorb some of the water (up to its saturation point) and I don't want to leave that in the tank. If the alky drops out of suspension because it is saturated with water, that alters the properties of the fuel blend and may not be good for the engine.
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Even if you managed to get all the water out of the tank, you will need to open the fuel line at both ends and blow it out, and remove the fuel rail from the engine and clean it out. (not sure what to say about the filter in the pump module....pricey...your risk if it still has water trapped inside it, maybe take it all apart and blow it out.)
There is still maybe a pint of liquid capacity within the fuel line and the fuel injector rail on the engine.

The fuel injector rail is normally designed with a significant volume (size of liquid chamber) lower than the level of the injector inlet tips, this is to trap any sediment that makes its way past the filter, it's supposed to settle in the bottom of the rail. Water will sit there too... until you increase the flow rate or tilt or move, then it sloshes and gets pulled into whatever injector is closest.

You will need to remove the wiper cowl panels to reach the fuel injector rail.


HTH

 
Rep Power: 209

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Rep Power: 518

I have a real gas pump nozzle....used to have it attached to a garden hose at the (previous) shop...

Let me tell you, salesmaggots only saw the gas pump nozzle. No clue that it was attached to a garden hose.
"It's a gas pump handle, therefore it MUST pump gas!"
Yeah, notsomuch.