Water in tank - product to absorb / remove ?

Bike has been spluttering badly today, all of a sudden after last nights
re-fill, and thinking about it there was only one of the 8 pumps working, so
I guess in hindsight the tanks were low.

It seemed better on WOT, but riding though towns was near impossible - it
got better after a hundred or so miles - perhaps it had sucked it through..

Anyway, today I siphoned what remaining I could out and got about a
tablespoon of water out with about 4 litres of fuel... so I suspect it was
water in the fuel...

Is there a product out there that absorbs the water ? I can maybe put a

Get the garage to pay to sort it out, FFS!

and you'd prove that the water came from their pumps exactly how?

I put a tablespoon of methylated spirits (obtained from any chemist)
in the petrol tank of my bike once a month or so and it absorbs any
water in the tank and that does the trick for me.

Dave Milligan

In a full tank of fuel and ride it out or drain it out and re-fill with
petrol ?

Thanks ...

In the tank, I believe. Methanol is miscible with both water and
petrol, so it gets the little pool of water off the bottom pf the tank
and disperses it throughout the rest of the petrol so that it can be
removed in insignififcant amounts. Methanol is also hygroscopic, so you'd
need to use the tankful up fairly quickly to avoid absorbing more moisture
from the air (especially today, phew what stickiness!).

Hi Ivan,

Thanks for that - I guess I could stick say a half litre in the tank with
approx 5 litres petrol in, mix it well and drain out all I could get out,
re-fill with fresh fuel only and ride it out - the amount of methanol in
that tank would then be minimal and the mix from the first clean out could
be added in small amounts to the car tank...

couple of litres in with it, slosh it around to mix it up and siphon out
again... then re-fill with fresh fuel... or maybe just chuck it in and ride

Put some of those silica gel packets in the float-bowls.

You can buy some goo in Halfords that absorbs water in your tank. You will
find it next to the fuel injector cleaners and Redex products.

The only way of getting all the water out is to take your tank off but
that shouldnt be nessasary just fill it up with petrol

if your bikes still playing up you will need to check the filter if
fitted to your bike or the carbs / injectors jets , if the source of
the water was the fuel station there is a good chance you have got dirt
in the fuel as well

it out ?

As wessie says, you need to drain the water from the bottom of the
fuel tank. You also need to remove any water from the float chambers
(it'll be at the bottom, which is why the bike splutters). That should
be sufficient - water and petrol hardly mix.

Sugar absorbs water pretty well.

Failing that I'd just drain off the fuel.

Anhydrous IPA is the stuff, if you can get it.
It may be sold at motor factors with some fancy name such as fuel dryer.

Or methanol. It tends to be hard to get perfectly dry ethanol,
both from a physical-chemistry PoV, and due to excise reasons..., but it
would probably work too.