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So it continues. I havent touched this car in weeks.
Its been way too hot and I left town a few times for a few days.
Today I drained the oil and cleaned the under hood drains.
Also disconnected the fuel pump and got about five qt bucket filled up with old fuel. Not sure if theres anything else in there but there has to be. I added two galons when I got the car and tried to start it the first time. Gonna attempt to drain it again.
Took the belt off and its in bad shape. Water pump pulley has major play so ordering a water pump today and wont attempt to start it again until thats replaced.
I got about 5qts out but the car showed over half tank. I got this fuel out by disconnecting the fuel pump.
I got it to start briefly with the help of starter fluid so it tells me gas in it is bad.
I need a 12V power source to manually power the fuel pump and flush the fuel out from under the hood. I dont know what to use for the power source. Any ideas are welcome.
Im not gonna go buy something just to use for this.
Have you thought of emptying the tank by sucking the old fuel out via the fuel level sensor hole? Not sure this can be done this way, but I did recall seeing something on the top of the tank which can be removed.
Have you thought of emptying the tank by sucking the old fuel out via the fuel level sensor hole? Not sure this can be done this way, but I did recall seeing something on the top of the tank which can be removed.
The tank is a "saddle" tank. There are two main chambers on the right and left of the driveshaft with a shallow connecting chamber over the driveshaft. There is a level sensor in each of the two main chambers, accessible from under the car. There is an educator system to enable the single fuel pump to draw fuel from both sides. The actual educator is in the right chamber; hoses run across from the left side to the right side. There is no access from the top.
I had to drain the tank once after filling up with contaminated fuel (water). I removed both sensors carefully, draining each side slowly into large pans. In my case the tank was full. I was then able to "mop" out the remaining fuel. It was a terrible job, dangerous and toxic. If you decide to pull the sensors get new seals.
One thought - I would not trust the gauge. The sensors could be giving a bad reading.
What I did I disconnected the main hose from the tank to the fuel pump.
Is it safe to assume that all fuel wont come out this way??
Any pictures of where the sensors are?
Also I put 2gl of fuel in my self after I got the car hoping that adding some fresh fuel to the mix would help start it. The car was already showing half tank.
Anyway less than 2gl came out by disconnecting the main fuel pump hose.
Think about how the tank is designed - as described above. The main hose from the tank to the pump will only drain the left chamber. When the fuel pump is running part of the discharge is directed through a hose to the educator in the high chamber, pulling fuel from the right chamber and sending it through another hose to the left chamber.
The attached video pretty much covers the entire subject. He shows a home made fitting that can be used to drain the chambers with a hose (M-B has a special tool of course). I couldn't find a fitting locally to modify, so I pushed the check vales open with a probe. The problem doing that is that fuel ends up everywhere since you can't control the splash.
Can I just disconnect the main line from the fuel rail under the hood, connect a long hose to it and start the car?? Will it drain the fuel that way and is it harmful to start the car with no fuel??
I guess that wont work since the car doesnt start lol but will ignition be enough to engage the fuel pump or no??
Id like to avoid taking off the fuel level sensors.
If you want to do that just take the leads off at the fuel pump and connect a battery to the pump. Put a meter on it first to find the correct polarity.
But, after all the hard and careful work you have done why would you take a shortcut here? The fuel that was in the car certainly contained ethanol which deteriorates badly if not stored with a fuel stabilizer. Running the pump might get the liquid out but won't clean any deposits off the bottom of the tank. Shortcutting here could bring you a world of hurt.
Yes. If you can find that fitting that is in the video (and can drill it out) I highly recommend it. It will make your job MUCH easier and safer. After removing the sensors you can reach in (with difficulty) and wipe the tank clean. If you are getting gunk on your rag you can try Berryman® B-12 Chemtool® Carburetor, Fuel System and Injector Cleaner (should be at auto parts stores or Wall-Mart). Likely you will find alcohol and water Ethanol will absorb and hold water until it reaches a saturation point, at which time the water and ethanol separate. This leaves a layer of alcohol and water at the bottom of your gas tank. At least the tank is plastic so you shouldn't have any rust, but the hard fuel lines from the tank to the engine may be rusted.
I was fortunate - sort of - I just had water to deal with. Since it was from a bad fill up it wasn't in the tank long. Once I wiped the tank clean I was in good shape.
yeah you gonna have to pull the tank or flush it somehow.
i had the same problem on my boat, i just pulled the tank and tossed it. gonna have a new tank made up. my engines are to valuable to risk over an old tank. anyway im going to drop a 200g gas tank in there
Fake news. Each sender there is a plug, you can remove a plug and screw in a tool with a hose attached, as you screw it in it releases a check valve and fuel drains out through the hose. It's a Mercedes tool, very basic, probably cheap.
Or, just take the valve core out of the test port on fuel rail, put a hose on that, jumper the fuel pump relay and pump out most of the fuel.
Definitely don't need to remove the tank or senders.
My friend is coming down nexr month, hes a certified Mercedes tech so Ill wait for him to help me with this. I definetly want to address the issue correctly.
In the mean time theres plenty to do. Yesterder was potentially the ladt 95 plus degree day so ill try to do little every day.
Got the front cleaned up some more a d im hoping to drop off the bumper to get repaired/resprayed.
im hoping to get a pair of oem amber corners too. Bot feeling the stock or clear, definetly not smoked
benzslo - Did you take the time to watch the video? Since the factory tool 202 589 00 90 00 is apparently NLA, the video shows how to make something that will work. Pumping it out is an option, but my experience is that there will still be fuel in the bottom of the tank (it isn't flat bottomed). And since the old ethanol fuel is 6 or more years old I would want to rid the system of it entirely. Using the pump method you could keep adding more good fuel to the tank and pump it out. But you have the collect that fuel and dispose of it. In my area I can only dispose of 5 gallons of hazmat per month. The OP has a tech friend coming to help. I'm sure he will get good advice.
Also cleaned out the trunk. Found traces of body work in the cd changer area just below the tail light. Luckily the qt panel wasnt effected and doesnt seem bad at all. Also wasnt rwported on carfax.
09-15-2019, 06:55 PM
