My dealer returned my car to the house last week with the petrol gauge showing it was totally empty – it had c50 miles left in the tank when I dropped it off.
I’ve queried this and he reckoned a fair few miles had been put on when it was serviced and MOTd… the radio also had to have the security code re-entered so I think they may have knackered the electrics at some point, in which case it’ll be going back for fixing.

Either way, I walked to the garage to fill my petrol can and then went home to put it in the car. It’s all in there now, and I’m wondering what best to do with the petrol can as it’s got a few dribbles left in the bottom.

Do I leave it outside with the lid off to evaporate? I don’t want to put it back in the cupboard whilst there’s anything in there…
Can I flush it out with water – but then what do I do with the water/oil mixture?

Let the petrol evaporate in a well vented area.

You might be over thinking this?

I leave my can in the open to dry out and then lives in the shed. I’d never let water go near it.

the radio also had to have the security code re-entered so I think they may have knackered the electrics at some point

or just disconnected the battery?

I used to leave a full can in the back of the car all the time, I think its supposed to contain petrol safely.

You might be over thinking this?

Possibly. I’ve never handled petrol before except the standard going to the garage so just wary…

It won’t have used much fuel at the garage, if the average fuel consumption was good before the battery was disconnected and all its done is start stop on its way back to you, then it will of course now show less miles to go.

If I fill my van up it will normally say I have 650 miles in the tank.

If I then reset the trips, and just drive round through town, the fuel remaining miles fo down to about 420.

firstly c50miles on an OBD is like saying the crystal ball you found in a charity shop actually works.

second you’re over-thinking it. Just leave the lid of and let it evaporate. Don’t rinse it with water, there’s no point. Stuff lid back on and dump back in shed.

I work with this stuff for a living, stop worrying.

Clearly the correct answer is to use the remaining petrol to set fire to the dealer showroom.

He won’t pull any shit like this on you again then.

Chuck a lit match in it, that will completely remove any residue.

I tend to empty mine in abandoned warehouses/empty schools that kind of thing.

If it was running on fumes when they dropped it back off – the fuel pump could be compromised – I knackered a fuel pump by running the 900 to almost dry, all the sludge at the bottom of the tank seemed to get scooped up and through the system – not good.

let it evaporate, by the way.

You put your car in the garage with no fuel…….

No wonder they gave it back with less , probably to spite you.

Seriously do you hate your garage .

He put a car in the garage with the range showing 50 miles, so probably had 70 miles at least in it. If a garage put 70 miles on my car they’d have some bloody explaining to do.

Bit of scooting about , a fair bit of idling for mot , followed by a good bit of revving for emissions testing.

Then service followed by a test drive.

Indicated 50 doesnt mean **** all . Crystal ball as mentioned above.

The tank was nigh on empty.

I did this once in my youth , the garage filled it up and charged me a significant inconviance fee for filling , was my bad and have since learned that there is absolutely no need.

As someone else above said, dropping a lit match in will deal with it.

more serious answer – its a petrol can, just put the lid back on and put it somewhere in your house in case you need it again, ideally in your garage if you have one.

I wouldnt be concerned about the radio needing the code entering, thats just a result of the garage disconnecting the battery for the service.

I also wouldnt care that they left it with ‘no fuel’, leaving it with 50 miles showing on the range is not much fuel in it. I also suspect that you could probably have driven it to a garage to fill it rather than getting a jerry can

I’d fill it with petrol myself, ****-all use empty.

I also suspect that you could probably have driven it to a garage to fill it rather than getting a jerry can

Possibly but this is South London and the way people drive round here, if I’d run out on the way and hard to park it, someone would’ve rear-ended it in all probability!

I’ll take it to the garage later on and fill the tank – the fuel gauge is now showing fuel in but the ‘miles remaining’ on the computer is still zero… so it may well be going back to the dealer for being looked at.

I tried the match thing. My eyebrows will grow back, no doubt 😳

I’ll take it to the garage later on and fill the tank – the fuel gauge is now showing fuel in but the ‘miles remaining’ on the computer is still zero… so it may well be going back to the dealer for being looked at.

As above when the computer says 50 miles it really means there’s probably <1cm of petrol left in the tank, try getting an accurate measurement of that while it’s sloshing around, most probably don’t even measure it and just guess based on how many miles it’s done since it dropped off the end of the range of the sensor (so if you disconnect the battery and wipe it’s memory it’ll think there’s nothing in there as it can’t ‘see’ anything).

There won’t be an issue with sludge, this isn’t a problem is cars as the petrol’s sloshing around and the outlet is usually flush with the bottom of the tank. You can only draw sludge through the system in something like a canal boat or stationary engine.

(so if you disconnect the battery and wipe it’s memory it’ll think there’s nothing in there as it can’t ‘see’ anything).

So I need to fill the tank, use it and then it will have a base from which to calculate? whereas now it has no memory of previous usage and therefore can’t calculate what’s left… that makes sense.

I love STW sometimes 🙂

What you can do with a car tank though is slosh all the debris off the bottom onto the intank course strainer partially blocking it or little shit gets up into the intank feed pump – probably what happened to kcal. Other wise the fuel filter should pick it up before it gets to the injection pump.