Kids do the darndest things. Sometimes it can end up costing their parents big bucks.
It can happen in an instant. You’re taking care of a child, and one moment they’re playing peacefully, and the next they’ve cut their sibling’s hair, taken a sudden fall, or shattered one of your coveted knick-knacks.
In a viral video with more than 1.1 million views, mom Leigha Barth (@watersmagic) shared the not-so-great surprise her son left in her car.
In the TikTok, Barth appears to be at a gas station about to pump when she notices something weird in the fuel hole.
When she takes a closer look, Barth notices something strange that isn’t usually there—a small stick stealthily inserted by her son when she wasn’t looking.
“Welp…any advice?? My son put sticks in my gas tank. I did NOT get all of it out,” she says in the text overlay.
In the caption, she asks mechanics, “How bad is this?”
What Should She Do?
Getting something in your gas tank is definitely concerning, but this isn’t necessarily a worst-case scenario.
The severity depends on several factors: the size of the debris, how far it’s traveled into the system, and whether your car has been driven since it happened, according to several car forums.
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Most modern fuel systems have built-in protections. There’s typically a fuel pickup screen at the bottom of the tank that’s designed to catch debris before it can reach the fuel pump. The fuel filler neck also has some natural barriers that prevent larger objects from reaching the actual tank.
What you should do:
Don’t start or drive the car until you’ve addressed the issue:
Try to remove what you can see using long tweezers, needle-nose pliers, or similar tools; and
Get professional help if you can’t remove all the debris or if any has fallen deeper into the tank.
If organic material like wood breaks down in gasoline, it could create smaller particles that might clog filters or damage fuel system components. In worst-case scenarios where debris reaches the fuel pump or injectors, repair costs can range from hundreds to over a thousand dollars.
Many people have dealt with kids, or perhaps a jilted ex, putting various objects in gas tanks.
Often the debris can be removed without major expense if caught quickly. The key is acting fast and not driving the vehicle until the problem is resolved.
A professional mechanic can assess whether the tank needs to be dropped and cleaned or if simpler removal methods will work.
DIY or Take It to a Mechanic?
People who reacted to Barth’s post had conflicting suggestions about what she should do. Some were more serious than others.
“Get rid of the kid for sure,” a top commenter joked.
“Shrink the kid and make him fish it out. Call Rick Moranis or Wonka ASAP,” another added.
A commenter who identified themself as a mechanic reassured Barth that it might not require professional assistance.
“Get what you can out, any of it that makes it to the tank isn’t going to hurt anything. The pump will be fine. The filters wont clog up from that, the pump won’t be affected, you can drive it where ever you need to go,” they wrote.
“I would even let my wife drive with the kids if this was our car is how little of an issue it is as long as you get enough out of the filler neck to allow gas to pump in normally. Get one of the skinny grab thingys from Harbor Freight or somewhere similar to get down in there and get any visible pieces out.”
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