....in my fuel tank?

Had to remove the back seat to run wiring for a back up camera. One of the bolts holding the back of the seat absolutely REFUSED to come out. Broke two tools trying to get it out and still only got it to turn about two revolutions.

I finally used my Dremel to cut the head off the bolt and used a screw extractor to get the bolt out (still a MAJOR job). In the process of drilling the hole for the screw extractor to fit into, I think I may have drilled a hole in my fuel tank.

When I filled the tank yesterday, there was gas on the ground afterwards (maybe from my tank, maybe from the guy ahead of me at the pump). My Check Engine light is also on now.

What say you guys? Is the fuel tank right under this bolt? And if I did puncture the tank, how do I fix it?

--
Bond

 

Does it smell like gasoline around your car? if it does then . . . .

 

Well, it may have, but I used a couple of bolt looseners (PB Blaster and Freeze-Off) and they stunk up the car pretty bad...so much so that I wouldn't have smelled gasoline if it were there.

And now there's a new bolt in that hole so it sorta-kinda plugs the hole. Sorta-kinda meaning it probably blocks much of any smell that may want to escape, but still prevents a tight seal for the gas tank (thus explaining the Check Engine light - maybe).

Hey, it just occurred to me, if there is a hole in the gas tank, perhpaps a longer bolt with some thred sealant or Goop glue on it would seal the hole??

 

The tank is under the floor of the back seat bottom. There are only snap locks on this part, the back seat has bolts at the bottom but i dont recall them going straight down towards the tank. But there are vent lines and cannister above the tanks and you may have hit that....plastic epoxy by permatex If the cannister, if you did hit the top of the tank than get another tnak at a salvage yard.

 

Reminds me of a Clint Eastwood (Dirty Harry) movie where this guy in his hopped up car ran the exhaust into his back seat.:

 

Sometimes I really impress myself with how clever and capable I am at this sort of stuff. I mean, I can fix just about anything - often better than the thing was to begin with.

And then there are days like today....

Yep, I've punched a hole in the gas tank. I just now occurred to me to stick a piece of wire down in the hole to see if it came back wet with gas (yeah some days I'm a little slow - why didn't I think of this sooner?). Well, I just did that and sure enough, there's hole in the tank. :-(

SFPDH!!!!!! (Don't ask .... it's my acronym for cursing without cursing)

So now I'm off to JTIS to see just how to drop my fuel tank so I can patch this hole. (Gotta avoid the wife knowing about it too....she'll give me all kinds of grief if she finds out. "I told you you were gonna get in over your head..." blah blah blah)

--
Bond