Would you drain your tank?

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feralmerril

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Yesterday my insurance agent came over. Soon as I opened the door he told me I didnt put my gas cap back on my truck. I leave the truck parked on the street in front of my house. The last time I drove it about two weeks ago I filled it up less than a mile from the house. We got snowed in and I have been using my other truck. There is no way I could have missed seeing the open gas door and cap off as it is in full view as I pulled around it to get in the driveway probley 40 times since I drove it. Still has a full tank.
I would bet 100 to 1 some kid thought he would be cool and worry the old man. What do you think? Would you think sugar in the tank?
Back in 1992 I bought a brand new GMC truck. The very next morning I came out to find the same event. On top of that, they wrote "Dont you just hate people with new trucks? It looked like they used a couple tubes of toothpaste to write that along the entire length of the truck that time. That happened in southern california, now I live in a good neighborhood in "corny" utah. Seems the kids around here are 50 years behind the rest of the states with their brand of humor. Once had them ring the door bell and run etc. I did fire it up and drive it a couple blocks. What say you?
 
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Depends. Have you done anything to tick off any of the local thugs in training/wannabes? Do you have any enemies who would sugar your tank?
 
Do you remember how full it was? It could also be someone came by to syphon off some gas. I have locking caps on all our cars -- just cheap insurance.
 
Since you have a second vehicle, why not be sure and either drain the gas or see about having it tested. I know it is a pain, but 1 tank of gas pays for 8 to 10 lockable gas caps. (I got taken for about 17 gallons of gas when visiting dad in the hospital.) Ivan
 
No local enemy's since I retired and moved here. I had only drove it .8 of a mile since I had filled it up and drove home. I do have a faulty gauge that I havent fixed as I was told they have to take off the box bed of the truck just to get to it. The gauge usually will come up after a mile of driving so I always go by the trip meter. I drove it yesterday about a mile to check that and its reading full.
 
Does it smell okay? With sugar you can smell it sometimes. In PA when I was younger they used to use marshmallows! If I wasn't sure I'd probably drain it. That might not cure it if any is in the lines or fuel pump. Good luck.
 
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Luckily my insurance man is the one who found it! When he left I did ask him if my insurance company would pay for it if it was sugared. He said yeah, it would come under vandalism.
Listen to this one. The reason I had him come over was I had just got billed for my two trucks and never read the bills close before. I have a 2000 GMC and a 2001 silverado. The 6 month bills show that the year older GMC was about $87s MORE than the year newer silverado! Both have the extended cabs and are almost the same truck. I lost it! We still havent completely solved what we are going to do but I have two houses, a car, both trucks and a quad through him. I had threatned to go insurance shopping as we went back in records and this has been going on since we moved here 8 years ago!
 
Well if you have already started the engine and it had sugar in it the damage is done. Now it would all depend upon HOW MUCH sugar they put in it and how much of bad gas was burned. Depending on how much it could take a while to see any problems. Symptoms would be fouled piston rings and spark plugs. I would most certainly not start it again until I was able to test the contents of the tank. Even though it has been started you might still be able to minimize the damage by just having it drained and the tank cleaned. The labor cost on a valve job would be alot more than having the gas tank drained and cleaned.

As far as gas being syphoned from your tank I thought that most if not all auto makers put "baffles" in the fill necks of the gas tanks to prevent this from happening. Not sure about it though.

Good luck!
 
I personally would drain the tank......but if too much of a hassle, pore in some stabil, get to a station and fill the tank with some premium and go for a drive. But not to far from home or your favorite service station.
 
MIS - INFORMATION

Sugar in gas tank: BRAVO SIERRA

snopes.com: Sugar in the Gas Tank

*****
Sugar is not solubile in gasoline. It will just lay in the tank like a dead mule.

*******

Siphoning - not likely - newer cars have made it almost impossible to siphon from the tank. (This applies to some pick-ups too)

*****
Tank was almost FULL. Seems to still be full.

*****

For peace of mind you might open fule line and run some gasoline into a clear container - look for water.

My bet is that there will not be any.

Bekeart
 
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feralmerril said:
Luckily my insurance man is the one who found it! When he left I did ask him if my insurance company would pay for it if it was sugared. He said yeah, it would come under vandalism.
Listen to this one. The reason I had him come over was I had just got billed for my two trucks and never read the bills close before. I have a 2000 GMC and a 2001 silverado. The 6 month bills show that the year older GMC was about $87s MORE than the year newer silverado! Both have the extended cabs and are almost the same truck. I lost it! We still havent completely solved what we are going to do but I have two houses, a car, both trucks and a quad through him. I had threatned to go insurance shopping as we went back in records and this has been going on since we moved here 8 years ago!
Click to expand...

If you have an insurance agent you may be paying more, perhaps a LOT more. When I switched to Geico I slashed my premiums nearly in half while getting the same coverage... a little better actually. Now I don't have anyone to come over to my house and hold my hand if I have a claim, but over the years I've saved close to $10k in premiums from what I would have paid to my agent at State Farm.

As far as the truck... I'd pop the cap to see if there was any sugar/dirt/whatever around the gas cap area... ... then forget about it.
 
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