When a car has been sitting around for years, the fuel can apparently go bad. It was pretty clear that draining the fuel would be one of the early jobs necessary to do.
I’ve never really handled petrol before, so given the flammability this one was a bit of a ‘take it slow, go carefully’ job.
Fortunately draining the fuel tank is pretty easy on the MX-5- it’s just a plug in the form of a bolt in the bottom of the tank, which is reasonably easy to access from underneath by the back left wheel. Jacking up the car on to an axle stand helps a lot here.
A total of 16 litres of petrol drained out, and I used a cheap ‘fluid catcher’ tray/tank off eBay to catch it and decant into some old petrol cans.
It’s advised to change the fuel filter while you’re doing this job- it’s behind a plastic cover on the opposite side of the underneath of the car- a couple of hoses to undo (and some more petrol down my sleeve…) – a stubborn clamp, and a new and inexpensive filter fitted fairly easily.
5 litres of fresh unleaded in the tank- turned the key, started right up! This was a pretty exciting moment.