[sjnowak]

Want to sihpon gas from my 2000 toyota corola, can't get the hose down the tank filler tube, how can I get the gas out?

[TxGreaseMonkey]

Disconnect the fuel line, attach an extension, turn the ignition switch to ON, and the fuel pump will pump it out. Do this outside and keep a fire extinguisher handy. To keep the fuel pump running beyond several seconds, you may need to look into how to jump, for instance, the connector going to the main fuel pump relay.

[Tonyr1084]

There are various different methods of draining the tank. First of all, you are not successful putting a hose down inside the tank because of a ball valve that is designed to seal the tank should the car roll over. There is NO WAY past that. If you manage to get a hose past that, pulling the hose back out will be absolutely impossible.

Your first answer is reasonable enough but rather difficult in that you have to disconnect things. There ARE other ways.

I'm not familiar with your exact model so I will give you some of my experiences: Sometimes there's a tube either on the side or the back of the tank that connects to the fuel pump assembly. It has nothing to do with fuel delivery, its sole purpose is for draining the tank. It will be a metal tube with a rubber end cap on it. IF you have that situation, simply remove the rubber cap - no, fuel will not start spilling out, it's for siphoning the tank empty. Hook a hose to that port and use a siphon pump to pull the fuel out.

On a different model you may have a drain plug in the bottom of the tank. That's a little more tricky. You need to know how much fuel is in the tank and have a receptacle big enough to contain the contents of the tank. YOU WILL GET FUEL ON YOUR HANDS AND DOWN YOUR SLEEVES. Do this in a well ventilated area, not in a heated garage where you might have a pilot light or operating electric heater. The pilot or the sparking of the temperature control device can easily ignite gas fumes.

Still again, on other models there may be no other way to drain the tank than to simply run the fuel pump. My neighbor had to replace a bad fuel pump on a Chevy. There was no way to drain the tank, so we had to pull the tank down while it was half full of fuel. It took the two of us and a jack to lower and raise the tank out and back in (after changing the fuel pump).

If you have to use that last method, I'm assuming you may have to replace a fuel pump, be VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY careful not to create any sparks while removing the old pump. Sparks from striking metal surfaces may ignite the fuel in the tank. If that happens you will have no recourse but to run and hope you don't burn your garage down.

My wife had a Toyota Celica (1989). I never had to replace the pump in that, so I never had a reason to drain the tank. But if I did, there was an access panel under the back seat that allowed access to the fuel pump. Incidentally, when she wrecked the car I junked it, but not before attempting to recover the gas. This is where I had my experience putting a hose into the tank but not being able to remove it. Luckily the car was going to the junk yard. I lost a short section of hose in the process. But had I attempted to do that simply to get some gas for the lawn mower, I would have been taking the whole tank down just to get the hose out. So don't do that again.

Good luck, hope you find some help in this.

Tony.

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