Advice needed - wrong petrol treatment in tank!
Discussion
Hi peeps
Cut a long story short - I've been a bit of a prat!
The dimwit Shell attendant didn't help but I should have checked when I asked for injector cleaner, then added the suggested Redex, er Lead replacement, into a tankful of Optimax
Afterwards, suspicion led me to read all of the small print, including: do not add to engines with catalytic converters. f
k
I've only driven 1 mile home, and intend having my P&J trailered to a garage for a tank drain, unless anyone here can reassure me that one dose won't screw my cats.
Any thoughts?
Cut a long story short - I've been a bit of a prat!
The dimwit Shell attendant didn't help but I should have checked when I asked for injector cleaner, then added the suggested Redex, er Lead replacement, into a tankful of Optimax
Afterwards, suspicion led me to read all of the small print, including: do not add to engines with catalytic converters. f
k I've only driven 1 mile home, and intend having my P&J trailered to a garage for a tank drain, unless anyone here can reassure me that one dose won't screw my cats.
Any thoughts?
Not a lot you could do, other than to syphon the remaining petrol out of the tank and refill with fresh, but to be honest I don't think that one dose of the stuff would kill the cat completely.
As I understand it, certain chemicals react with the precious metals in cats to 'pasivate' the surface and so prevent the catalyst action, but there's a hell of a lot of surface area on the honeycomb inside a cat, and probably not much of the undesirable chemicals in the additive, so it might reduce the cat's efficiency slightly, but shouldn't damage it enough to cause a fail at the next MOT.
....I hope!
As I understand it, certain chemicals react with the precious metals in cats to 'pasivate' the surface and so prevent the catalyst action, but there's a hell of a lot of surface area on the honeycomb inside a cat, and probably not much of the undesirable chemicals in the additive, so it might reduce the cat's efficiency slightly, but shouldn't damage it enough to cause a fail at the next MOT.
....I hope!
Thanks Martin
Pretty much my thoughts, but I have no equipment to do it myself. Daresay it'll cost me £100 for my mechanic to sort, but if I were to run the whole tank, I'm risking £1500 worth (guess) to replace cats/manifolds if I'm wrong.
Pisses me off that I'm binning £50 of Optimax as well, but my dad's crappy little Nova or his MGB will enjoy a tank of rocket fuel at my expense!
I suppose what I was hoping for was a Rover engine expert PH'er replying with a "don't worry, definitely won't bugger yer cats" message, but it ain't gonna happen is it?!
Pretty much my thoughts, but I have no equipment to do it myself. Daresay it'll cost me £100 for my mechanic to sort, but if I were to run the whole tank, I'm risking £1500 worth (guess) to replace cats/manifolds if I'm wrong.
Pisses me off that I'm binning £50 of Optimax as well, but my dad's crappy little Nova or his MGB will enjoy a tank of rocket fuel at my expense!
I suppose what I was hoping for was a Rover engine expert PH'er replying with a "don't worry, definitely won't bugger yer cats" message, but it ain't gonna happen is it?!
T88CAN said:Thanks Tony - thought about this, but suspect as there's a warning on the bottle, they'll never give me straight advice, but err on the side of caution to avoid litgation.
I would try contacting Redex for advice before panicking too much, or you could always but more fuel in the tank every 20 odd miles to dilute it down????
May still call tomorrow in vain hope.
andy4200 said:
What a great excuse for having the car de-catted.
Couldn't have put it better myself.
Mine have pride of place in a safeways bag in the garage. Wouldn't want them getting damaged before next years MOT.
You want a Tuscan, mate. TVR Power took my cats out, and coupled to a modified ECU so it should even get through the MOT.
Fsck me it's loud, though...
V8 Kieran said:
Thanks Martin
Pretty much my thoughts, but I have no equipment to do it myself. Daresay it'll cost me £100 for my mechanic to sort, but if I were to run the whole tank, I'm risking £1500 worth (guess) to replace cats/manifolds if I'm wrong.
All it takes is a length of hosepipe...one end inserted to the bottom of the tank, the other end at ground level, and suck! You might get a gobfull of petrol, but it'll do the job.
Remind me to tell you about the side effects of sucking brake fluid through a tube as a means of bleeding brakes some time, though!
Martin_S said:
All it takes is a length of hosepipe...one end inserted to the bottom of the tank, the other end at ground level, and suck! You might get a gobfull of petrol, but it'll do the job.
Had to do this in the garage for customers more than once. It's not a taste you grow to love, though. 
I ended up getting a cheapo battery powered (mattres) pump for a fiver or so. Think Argos sell 'em. That had enough power to suck the petrol out of the top of the tank to get the process started.
BT&J_S_G said:
You want a Tuscan, mate. TVR Power took my cats out, and coupled to a modified ECU so it should even get through the MOT.
Fsck me it's loud, though...
Nahh, I'm toying with the idea of my next car and I like the new Caterham, if only they would stick it in a standard chassis.
Not yet though, at least one more year of Cerbera fun but I definately want a more focused track toy at some point. A present for when I turn 30 and the insurance finally says ok!!!!
Keeping my eyes open for a motorbike at the mo anyway, no more space in the garage after this. Sorry, hijack over
andy4200 said:
Nahh, I'm toying with the idea of my next car and I like the new Caterham, if only they would stick it in a standard chassis.
CSR 260? Can see why people'd like a car like that, not for me though. Wouldn't be much use other than on the track days.
Will be interested to see the new Lotus when that comes out. Failing that we're talking TSO or DB7 next, I think...
Martin_S said:
All it takes is a length of hosepipe...one end inserted to the bottom of the tank, the other end at ground level, and suck! You might get a gobfull of petrol, but it'll do the job.
!
Park it by my house & some kind individual will do it for you, & even replace your wheels with some nice new shiny bricks
>> Edited by RUSSELLM on Friday 5th November 12:45
RUSSELLM said:
Park it by my house & some kind individual will do it for you, & even replace your wheels with some nice new shiny bricks
I thought I should complete the tale..............
I did call Holts (makers of Redex) who advised that it was a Sodium based product, and in their experience would not cause any significant damage with one tankful. Obviously this was a conversation, not in writing, for the same reason as the warning on the back of the bottle: our society has degraded to sueing for blowing your nose, and finding a whole in your tissue advertised as "man-sized".
It is for this reason I have confidence, because if he believed the Redex dose might damage my cats, the Holts employee would not have been willing to stick his neck out - could have simply said "yeah, drain it" etc, etc.
Of course, if I'm wrong, you'll be the first to know!!
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