I bought some gas line anti-freeze at Valu Home Center containing Methyl Alcohol. Its been 0 degrees here for day so I put some in my Rav and totally ruined the gas tank and at the same time put some in a '04 Buick which nothing happened. I only drove old cars, am now finding out new cars are different.
Why do you believe it damaged your gas tank? About the only thing I can think of is you had a fair amount of water in the tank and not too much gasoline. If that is the case, all you need do is to fill the tank with fresh gas and it should improve. Next tank full add a can of water absorber (HEET) and by the end of that tank full everything should be fine.
Why did you add whatever you added to the tank?
BTW I have never heard of "gas anti-freeze" I am guessing it was a treatment like HEET used to absorb the water in the tank and run it through the engine. It you have a lot of water the engine will get rough and may even stop. Gas does not freeze, only the water in the tank. You should not have any water in the tank so normally you don't need to add anything to the gas that comes out of the pump.Joseph; if you park in a heated garage in the winter with a partially filled tank, the moist air that gets into the tank causes condensation. Enough cycles of this and you have enough water to foul up the fuel system. If you do not fill the tank For the last 30 years I have been putting “gasline antifreeze” in my tank to avoid this problem, as well as keeping the tank relatively full.
Here Walmart sells it in small bottles called Super Tech gasline antifreeze, and it’s likely isopropyl alcohol, which absorbs water.
- My car broke down on the thruway, towed to dealer and the dealer said the tank was totally useless and it had white powdery stuff in it, they had to replace it and the gas lines. 2. I don’t have use of a garage.
The dry gas did not cause the problem with your fuel tank. Chances are that there was another underlying problem.
Do you think I just got some bad gasoline, I only go to Sunoco because of the 4% off using the credit card?
Methyl alcohol is corrosive as hell and should never be used as a dry gas. Instead use a dry gas that contains isoprophyl alcohol. The white powdery stuff they found was the methyl alcohol corroding the gas tank.
Tester
I believe that fresh gasoline containing 10% ethanol absorbs enough residual water and therefore one probably doesn’t need additional water absorber.
Then why does Valu Home Center sell it? I learned a very expensive lesson.
Well I know that now. But why is my Buick still running???
For the last 30 years I have been putting “gasline antifreeze” in my tank to avoid this problem,
30 Years ago it was a bigger problem. I believe you will find most if not all gasoline has a water absorber already in it.
Could you explain exactly what you mean by "gasline antifreeze" Gasoline does not freeze in any temperature commonly found on earth, Do you mean a water absorber, usually alcohol based substance that co-mingles with the water and the gasoline to allow it to mix with the gasoline and not cause problems?It’s running because every gasoline tank is a different environment. Chemistry works miracles and disasters depending upon the circumstances. In order to get a bad reaction, things had to be perfectly lined up. It’s hard to achieve when using random circumstances.
The people who sell this stuff call it gasline antifreeze; what they mean is that it keeps ice from forming in the tank and clogging your gaslines. You must live in Florida, since it is widely used in the Northern states and canada.
As I explained, it is quite possible to get ice crystals in your gas if the gas does not contain any alcohol, as was the case with all gas in the past. Where I live at this time most gas does not contain any alcolhol; it will in another year or two. The name I quoted you is right off the bottle I bought at Walmart.
Modern fuel systems are not directly vented to the atmosphere, so this does NOT happen.