Will putting soda in the gas tank of a car break the eng?

Answer 1

First, to answer your question, NO. But it will mess up your fuel system if you don't take care of it. And it's just a huge nuisance to deal with, also.

I am not a mechanic, but I do have experience from this happening to me. I was sabotaged right before the elections in California in 2008. Someone who didn't like my bumper stickers very much decided to pour soda into my tank.

I found out that someone did this, because my car started dying out of the blue (it's a new car with NO problems, so I thought this was pretty strange). I had a mechanic take a look at it, and he said my gas tank had some kind of soda mixed in with the gasoline.

I had the fuel system flushed, and replaced the clogged fuel filter with a brand new one. To this day, I still have problems--only if I let my gas tank go all the way down to "empty" and then fill it up all the way again. This is what my hubby did to fix the problem:

1) Flush the system out

2) Replace fuel filter

3) Fill up with a high-grade gas (91-grade)

4) Put a gas additive in the gas tank (I got a pack from Costco for cheap cause I knew I'd be adding this stuff to my tank over the next few fill ups)

5) Do NOT let your gas level go all the way down to Empty. If you do, you're left with the residue that collects at the bottom of the tank, and filling the gas tank all the way back up stirs up the leftover residue. Instead, keep filling your tank up after it reaches the halfway mark with high-grade gasoline. Keep adding additive to it as well. Keep filling up with high-grade gas and additive until you feel like you've gone through a few gas tanks worth of gasoline.

This is such a headache. It's the price I paid in voicing my opinion peacefully. Unfortunately, those who opposed my opinion just proved to me how "closed minded" they are, even though they're the ones that claim to be so open-minded!