That influencer who said 'just dump baking soda in your tank for rust' was 100% wrong

I saw this comment on a truck page from some guy with 50k followers saying to pour baking soda in your gas tank to fix rust. Tried it on a '92 F-150 I was flipping, and it clogged my fuel lines so bad I had to drop the tank and replace the pump. Anyone else fall for one of these quick fix comments that wrecked your project?

2 comments

2 Comments

cooper.phoenix19d agoMost Upvoted

Man I feel you. That baking soda thing is just the latest version of "pour this random household product in there and it'll fix everything." It's like how people think you can just throw a handful of rice in a salt shaker to keep it from clumping, or how everyone swears by WD-40 for things it was never meant for. We've all got this idea that there's some magic shortcut hiding in our kitchen cabinet, but most of the time it just creates a bigger mess than the one you started with. The real fix for rust in a tank is pulling it, cleaning it out properly, and maybe coating the inside if it's bad enough. But nobody wants to hear that because it means work.

finley72919d ago

Wait, hold on. You're telling me people actually throw rice in a salt shaker? I've never heard that one before, that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. I can just picture a bunch of rice grains getting stuck in the holes and then you've got a salt shaker that won't even let anything out. And the WD-40 thing, yeah, I've seen people use it on bike chains and door hinges, but I've also watched a buddy spray it on a rusty bolt and then wonder why it seized up even worse a week later. Your mileage may vary on the kitchen cabinet magic, but I'm with you, the real fix is almost always the one nobody wants to do.