Refuelling Woes

[dragon.2000]

Hi all,

Its my first post here so if i get things wrong, sorry in advance!

I have had my Corolla T3 for about a month now and am generally quite happy with it, my only real problem that is so frustrating is that whenever i go to top up the petrol, the trigger of the petrol pump keeps snapping back (to indicate its full when in fact its not). I have noticed that the petrol cap hole is smaller than my previous car's. I have been to the dealers to ask them about it and they say its just like that and his does the same! (very helpful!)

Are there any tips from you guys that you could give me to top up successfully, as at the moment i'm only guessing how much fuel goes in and am petrified of over filling...!

Does anyone else have the same problem?

[al_nunn]

I have the T2, its about 7 months old now. In the first few weeks i kept getting the same problem. It then stopped doing it and has not done it for a long time now.

I think it can vary slightly from pump to pump. When i had the problem i just had to ease off on filling it up so fast. Now it doesnt do it at all, but i am afraid i have no tips to help.

Maybe someone else can give more reasons for it.

[NickE]

I have had this happen with several cars of various makes. I think it is something to do with narrower inlet pipes in newer (approx 1990 onwards) cars creating greater back pressure when being filled, and that in combination with extremely sensitive pumps. I have noticed different behaviour with different garages. I know it's a pain, but you just have to hold the trigger half-in and be patient. See if you get different symptoms when filling a half-full tank compared to a near-empty tank.

Nick

[Mevi]

New petrol cars have a smaller hole to stop you from mis-fuelling with diesel. If you start-up the car you'll completely shag the engine. Just having it in the tank is an expensive job to fix.

I guess there's no standard size as the company & hire cars I've driven seem to have slightly different sizes.

I was thankful of this when I nearly filled up with diesel when my local Shell added more optimax pumps putting a diesel pump where the old one was.

I tried jamming the nozzel in a few times before I paid attention to what I was doing!! Autopilot........

[Guest Calum]

I have the same problem with my corolla, and the answer i found is to hold the nossle at a flatter angle. Just try playing around with the angle you hold it at, and it should work properly in the end.

[stella]

lol,i went to the local garage to fill up and there was this old boy in his 70s with a brand new golf gti,he was turning it over for ages tryiny to get it started and it chucking out black smoke!i went over to ofer my assitance and saw he had put 40 quids worth of the finest diesal in to his car so said him politely its propa :censor: .so he asked if i could help push the car over to the side while he rang up the AA

[moaeedsajid]

I was going to post a similar threadything yesterday. My 97 Corolla is the same. I thought I had worked a way to get the nozzle in and fill up (being very careful not to rip the fuel door off) but nah..

Yeah, I agree with NickE, just hold it half way and be patient. Seems really silly, especially when I'm filling up in the fast lane at Asda <_<

[Chyownster]

If i remember, there is a valve in the nossle so that when it feels the bubble feeding back into it, it stops. so with a norrower hole will mean more pressure and less area for the bullbes.

dont fill the tank right to the top cos there is more chance getting fuel on ur nice paint work and then get rust like some of the mk3 fiestas have lol

hope this helps, if not then ignore me!! :!Removed!:

[Viper_7]

Simple...smaller fuel pipe ( as said to prevert filling with Diesel) fuel going in...no room for the air to get out...causes the back pressure which triggers the auto shut off.

Most modern cars have this problem.

Vipes