Its never a dull day in my life...I'm cruising home on the highway doing about 60, something appears in the road ahead of me, it looked flat almost like a flattened motorcycle faring. I remember it was maroon, and no more than 1-2" thick. I had no choice to run over it, as the car ahead of me did. I heard it bang into something but it did not sound that bad, until I smelled gas. I just passed a gas station and chalked it up to that. I then looked at the gas gauge, it was a quarter tank. I thought, yeah I only had a quarter tank, right? I was clearly in denial. I soon after(like a quarter mile) realized that I had a big problem as I watched the needle go lower than i'd ever think it would below E.

It was late and dark, so I pushed the car off to the side of the road(very busy intersection) and decide to walk home about 3 miles, although I ran because I was freezing cold & paranoid leaving my baby in 'br0ke d0wn' mode in a very high-profile area; just waiting to be messed with. I sprinted home and had my neighbor take me back over. At this point I didn't know what had happened, but I thought maybe a cracked line or something somewhat simple. I started pouring in gas, and it was coming out quicker than I could get it in!

The end result was this:



That hole is about 8-9"long, it was sliced like a knife through warm butter. I found the thing I hit, it was a huge half circle shaped solid piece of trim or molding off an 18 wheeler. It was all banged up and i'd bet it messed up others' cars. It was so big I could not get it in the car, but i'm going back to photo it soon.

It's an absolute miracle that this metal piece didn't spark or get lodged in my frame or suspension after tearing a hole in my tank, that could have been a catostrophe!!!

 

Holy ****


#97 says, "Get well soon, lil' bro"

 

damn bro.. that sucks man. hope you can get everything fixed up ok, and glad you weren't harmed.

 

Holly **** *****, Someone is keeping a good watch over you. It's good to here that you are ok, With something like that you could be crispy right now.

 

WTF!!!!!! damn man..wow was car front of u get out ok??

 

Holy shitballs batman!!! That could've been really ugly.

Poor little car. I hate it when I'm minding my own business and someone else's problem becomes mine. *swear w0rd*

 

damnnnnnnnnnnnn

 

Holy crap !

 

i just threw up a little in my mouth

 

" "

 

holy chet

 

Damn.
That is real shitty.

Something similar happened to my brother as he was getting on an exit ramp, except it was a dead deer.
Your situation is way worse.
Hope you get it fixed in a timely fashion.

 

Wow...Mike, glad your ok bRo! I was just on vacation and had to dodge a faring on I-4 in Orlando. I know thats what it was though....b/c just after dodging it i saw the operator of the motorcycle hauling ***** to the wall back after it

 

HOLY SH*T! Sorry to hear about the R, but more importantly I am glad you are ok. That very easily could have been much worse.

 

Sorry man, the passenger rear wheel has a healthy dent in it also. Doesnt that cause a vibration?

 

Sucks...GL on the fix

 

god damn...pretty small hole. good thing it didnt come thru your windshield and rip your head off or something.

 

http://www.car-part.com for your new tank.

Sweet merciful jesus that is nuts.

 

Things that make you go hmmmmm ....
Sorry to see the mayhem but glad that it didn't catch fire or something worse.

 

I hope you washed off the gas on the rear of the car too...im sure there was lots of spray back there and dont want your paint falling off.

 

Damn man glad ur okay

 

H0RRY CHIT!! But I know your R will be back on the road in no time.

-Victor

 

So you're saying the hippopotamus has nothing to do at all in any theoretical way with the cell phone?

 

Wow, thanks for the concern guys This could have turned out much worse, but luckily it didn't. I seem to be attracted to danger. Wait 'till you hear the copper pipe story, that's another post though, stay tuned for that one...

The story now shifts to fixing it, which is becoming a royal PITA. I took the next day off and went on the hunt for a tank. I found a yard with one, drove 30miles for it, out of a '99 for $100. Considering a new one lists at $550, it was worth $100. The tank looked much cleaner than mine, and still had a bit of gas in it. I heard the guy yelling, "I got almost all of the gas out". I thought that was a good sign, so I went back home with it. I was getting ready to clean out the old gas, and what do I see inside the tank, RUST!



This is what first came out of the tank, I put in fresh gas and sloshed it around: (that's not iced tea either)



I was not happy at all to see this, but decided i'd try to make it work. I read online many methods of removing the rust, and decided to try. I ended up going through 6 -7 gallons of gas and a few good hard hours cleaning it, only to hit another huge roadblock. The effin' return line is not in the same place as my '98 tank, it's routed through a pcv type valve into a plastic fitting, back into the tank. Figure a:



I did not even notice the differences when I picked it up, but everywhere I checked claimed 94-99 are interchangable. So, I decided to see if it was able to be modified, and when I went to removfe the plastic fitting, it broke and felt dry-rotted. There wasn't a chance in hell I was going to risk modifying my fuel tank. So, I'm getting my money back as soon as I can get back up there.

I found another yard that will be getting me a tank out of a 98 per my request. I told them I need the fill and return lines together unlike the 99-spec tank. Nothing is EVER easy!!

 

**** man!!! Now you can get a fuel cell