Hi all, I have an 07 G35x sedan and I was wondering what is housed in the metal enclosure outlined by the green circle? It's located right beside one of the rear wheels (on both sides).

The reason I'm asking is that I stupidly placed a jack stand on this to lift the car up and it left a pretty big dent. Is there any cause of concern? Nothing leaked, but I just found out that the black coating fell off as a result the crease made by the jackstand.



Thanks.

 

The Green circle is your gas tank.

 

you sure about that? because there's also another one on the other side...

 

Yes! Do you think there is only one tank? Our cars is 20 Gallons and if it was only on one side it would throw the balance of our cars off. Some A$$ whole jacked up my car on both tanks and they are pretty dented up. Some other mechanic shop told me about it and that's how i know those are our gas tanks.

 

Uhm, to be honest, I've never looked that closely, but I'd be very surprised if our cars have two tanks. Much more likely that they have a single saddle tank.

 

you're both right in a sense.

blue - the tank stretches across the width of the car, so it appears there is a gas tank on both sides. but really, it's the same tank, as vqsmile implied - a saddle.

 

wow I think I'm convinced that it is the gas tank... I kept rechecking and just a bit surprised that it didn't leak after withstanding enormous amount of pressure. These things are built really tough.

I learned my lesson...

 

Makes sense its built tough.. imagine the carnage when it leaks from a minor or even a major car crash... instant napalm

 

there was an episode on car science where they shot different bullets from different guns into a old cars gas tank and most common bullets were unable to penetrate the tank and also an episode on mythbusters where some caused a leak but no explosion... these things are built tough

 

kool is right. they also had an episode of running a car, with a full tank, off a cliff to take whatever crash route it chose - they kept it running with the gas pedal pressed WOT also. the results yielded no explosion, and if I remember correctly, not even a gas tank puncture.

 

It's not just tank technology though; gasoline just isn't terribly flammable in it's liquid sate. A full gas tank with a bullet shot through it or punctured by a car crash would be extremely unlikely to explode. An empty tank though, full of nothing but fumes, now that's a whole different story. It's always the gas vapor evaporating off the top of the liquid that is so explosively combustible. If 100 gallons of gas filled a container which had a lid that funneled up to a very small opening, and you struck a match to that opening, you'd get a small initial flash and then it would act more like an old school cigarette lighter. Whereas, if you took just a shot glass of gasoline and sprayed it from a fine nozzle and then struck a match, you'd get an amazingly large explosion. This is basically the principle of fuel-air bombs like the infamous "daisy cutter" of the Vietnam era. I think Hollywood would just go broke if they ever had to accurately depict gasoline and the automobile, it's just not that sensational.

 

Thanks guys, your comments reassured me that I'm safe in my G35

 

Just think about your back seat riders, they are sitting on top of the gas tank. lol