Petrol + Plastic=?

[William]

I recently had to break off the locked petrol cap from my car, due to lost key. In the process, a few small pieces of hard, broken plastic fell into the tank. Will these just sit in the tank or cause problems (jam in the filter or worse)? No problems after 100 miles.

[Harley]

Unless the car is very very old it will have a fuel filter. Even if some bits are drawn into the fuel pipe( there should be a gauze type of cover in the tank itself) the filter will catch them.In theory some bits may settle around the fuel outlet gut they are more likely to simply float about inside the tank.

[rekstout]

Hard plastic should be fine as it does not dissolve in petrol (fuel cans are made of a softer plastic and are fine). If you went to a garage or dealer to have them fished out it would be a difficult and expensive job - I conce had a problem with an Escort which shed its fuel tank lining and constantly blocked the filter unti the tank was replaced - costly. Petrol + Polystyrene = ersatz napalm though!