306 1.4 petrol tank leak

[jgra1]

HI all.. A friend's plastic tank has a minor leak. The leak seems to be coming from a plastic stud that once was a mounting for the exhaust / tank shield.

The mouting isn't really needed as there are a few others to support the shield. Also, someone has 'aryldited' the inside threaded bit of mount anyway, rendering it U/S.

A replacement of the tank seems way over the top (excuse pun My thinking is to get the car low on fuel, and jack and support the side of the car with the leak, and hacksaw the stud right off, and sand it and apply a patch of something like araldyte... should work shouldn't it?

Thanks
John

[CitroJim]

Sounds like a good plan to me John. The worst that can happen is that it'll just start leaking again so nothing lost.

I'd use the traditional sort of Araldite that takes several centuries to set rather than the "rapid" stuff, which seems very poor stuff to me. The only drawback with Araldite is that it can be quite brittle so make sure the area to be repaired is not subject to a lot of flexing.

Beware of some other preparations that might appear suitable for the job. They can be porus and do nothing to stem a miinor leak

I wonder if the tank sealant used by the classic car lads to retrieve a rusty steel fuel tank with pinhole leaks might work with a plastic tank? That puts an epoxy coating inside the tank. Mind you, it has to come off the vehicle and be emptied so it may work out more expensive than a new tank or a replacement from a scraper.

[AndersDK]

I dont believe you can make anything stick to the tank. Its a "fat" type plastic - like PP.

I'd try drill out the plastic stud and fit a regular self cutting large head flat seating screw with a suitable oil resistant soft rubber seal. Make sure everything fits snugly to each other.

[jgra1]

thanks both...

will let you know.

J