fuel tank flush

Any pointers to how much it costs to have the fuel tank flushed out  :dontknow:
Many thanks people

My cabrio came with a garage invoice from prev owner. They charged ?400 for removing tank, cleaning, flushing fuel lines and cleaning carb.

That was in 2000 so ?500 these days?

I've done it myself on a GTI and on a carb. It?s not particularly tricky, raising it high enough can be a problem, I used a plank and some soft padding under the floor in front of the rear wheels. Run down the amount of fuel in the tank as much as possible. Remove rear exhaust, undo the 4 axle mounting nuts (CLEAN THE THREADS SHINEY CLEAN 1ST.  USE LOTS OF WD40 AND CARE OR THEY *WILL* SHEAR OFF AND YOU WILL BE IN A WHOLE HEAP OF PAIN AND THINK ?500 IS A BARGAIN?.). Undo top two strut mounts and the axle can be lowered enough to allow enough space for removal of tank without disconnecting the rear break flexis. Remove rubber piper from fuel filler. Remove two straps, disconnect any breather pipes and its off. Swill out with clean petrol. On carb models this is awkward as the is no outlet at the bottom and the sender unit hole has a lip inside that stops the debris coming out easily. The GTI & diesel models also have a plastic filter in the tank that can be extracted via the sender hole with a bent piece of wire.

A few on this site have used an air line sprayer to ?suck out the debris via the sender hole without removing the tank.

Thanks a lot will probably do the latter  :wink:

My cabrio came with a garage invoice from prev owner. They charged ?400 for removing tank, cleaning, flushing fuel lines and cleaning carb.

That was in 2000 so ?500 these days?

Bear in mind you can buy a new genuine mk1 tank from VW for around ?300, so I wouldn't spend that sort of money on flushing out an old one.

Cheers

I think when using garages the cost of the components is insignificant compared to labour costs.  The ?400 would have been almost entirely labour costs. The same amount of labour would be required to put in a brand new tank so the cost would have increased to ?700. The best way to save on motoring costs is to avoid 75 quid an hour garages.

MK1s are DIY friendly and most parts can be sourced cheaply via GSF etc