Ive had another go at removing the diesel with a long tube (maybe not long enough) from a 1996 renault espace.the tube gets wet with diesel but when i pump theres no sign of the fuel even showing in the tube. if i suck on it, i dont hear or sense its even in the diesel.

Could this tank be baffled to stop people from removing the fuel with ease? The next idea i had was removing the fuel line up front in the engine bay. but without the car running and the fuel pump working, its not going to be the answer either,is it?

any ideas?

Are you scrapping it yourself? If not why bother remove the fuel? Let the scrappy do it?

You could probably do it by removing a pipe in the engine bay if the fuel pump primes when you turn the ignition on, that’s how I have done it in the past, just kept flicking the ignition on and off.

Maybe take the fuel pipe off at the tank and let it run out?

Drill a hole in the tank?

I’d probably only bother if it was a lot though.

container and funnel under the tank, then hammer a chisel through it.

Rich, it will be a mechanical fuel pump driven by the engine off the cambelt.

Id just take a pipe off at the tank, but I like Biscuit powered’s style.

A “friend” of mine just cuts the fuel line and fills a bucket up from cars he intends to scrap.

This technique always works well in a car park late at night if your low on fuel 😉

vacuum cleaner??

Probably got a baffle to stop siphoning. Agree with above, beat a hole in the tank with something sharp and collect the fuel in a bowl/pour into can. Erm, maybe best not to use the hitting method with a petrol-fuelled car…

its diesel. so not as scary lol.

its a people carrier with over 3/4 tank left in it. to scrap it and get £100 with 50 quid of fuel in it seems a pain.

will try a longer hose tomorrow and then the on and off idea with the ignition.The worry is chopping,cutting,bursting,not having enough containers for something that might end up over 40 litres… in my dads clean workyard.He would go a bit nuts if i lost control of the wangled attempt and couldnt plug 40 litres!

On my Punto, I removed the cover under the rear seat, disconnected the fuel line and attached a length of clear tubing to the pump outlet. Everytime I turned the ignition on it would pump fuel for several seconds. The fuel pump is electric, at least the main lift pump is. It might have started to self-siphon after a while but I only needed to remove a few litres so I could remove the pump without spilling fuel, the terminals had overheated and melted through the cap so fuel would slosh out.

I’ve done the same as spooky mentions. Got severl litres out this way before.
Tight ar$se ? Who me ?

If its to be scrapped drill / chisel a hole or remove the pipe altogether. If you drill a hole you can control the size and therefore the flow (just make sure you have enough buckets and containers!)

Find the return line back to the tank and connect that to your can and start the car.

Find the fuel pump and wire it up directly to the battery? Presumably its just another 12v component, especialy the lift pump? If the main pump is mechanical and you want to use that, just put the outlet into your recepticle and turn the engine over, it cant start if theres no fuel gettign in?

I’m mechanicaly minded but not a mechanic, your life may be very quickly over if any of my ideas dont work out :p

Drill a hole in the tank.

There was a spate of fuel thefts specifically targetting Renaults in the Oxordshire area doing the exact same thing.

plastic tank?
not familiar with espace but they were mostly plastic, drill and remove filler cap or follow back fuel line and rip out, take it there is a significant amount worth keeping?

if it will turn, just bleed from the pump/injector, similar to priming as if you had run it empty

take the whole tank off

Dont drill a hole, you’ll put swarf in the fuel.