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Too much petrol in the tank

Hi all,

Last night I filled my 1999 Fiesta up at a Tesco garage, and must have put too much in. It was fine at the time - I drove the 5 miles home without a problem - but when I got into the car this afternoon I smelt petrol. I checked under the car - no obvious leaks - and then opened the petrol tank. Petrol spurted out, so I quickly closed it, ran and got a bucket and tissues and opened it again. It eventually slowed to a trickle, but didn't stop completely.

Now, I'm parked on a slight slope, so (bearing in mind that I hadn't obviously over-filled it last night) I assume that either it's this causing it to continue to spurt out, or the fact that the sun is beating down on the car and warming it up.

In which case, shall I just wait until an hour after sunset and see what happens then? Is my car safe to drive? I phoned a garage, and they said it almost certainly was. However it's not the petrol coming out of the inlet that I'm worried about but the smell in the interior of the car.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Edward

Reply to
Edward
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On this great day..21 Apr 2005 09:36:49 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk (Edward) wrote:

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Reply to
Mike

Thats the car windows he means ..lol Stuart

Shift THELEVER to reply.

Reply to
Stuart

The message from snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk (Edward) contains these words:

Yes. What's happened is that because you've parked on a slope the downpipe is now below the fuel level in the tank. During the day the fuel has outgassed a bit and presurised the tank. This blew out some fuel when you fuelishly removed the cap.

The smell of petrol can hang around for ages, but as long as it isn't overpowering it's very likely just that - a hangover rather than fresh fuel.

Drive the car - so the level goes down a bit, and don't open the tank when it's full again!

Reply to
Guy King

:-)

Reply to
Howard Neil

Slight chance it will have pushed petrol though the vent system into the carbon canister. The carbon canister is supposed to hold vapour not liquid. Some liquid petrol may be draining from the canister's bottom hose - usually goes into a frame box section. So one chassis rail may have a lot of fuel in it - in time it will vapourise and vent through various drain holes in the box section. The carbon canister has a vacuum operated valve on it that opens when the engine is running under load. The valve allows the engine to suck vapour from the canister. If the canister has liquid in it then it will suck liquid petrol instead of vapour. This could upset the mixture a lot for quite some time - until it has dried out the canister. If the poor running this causes is too bad to drive with, you will have to replace the canister.

Reply to
Peter Hill

Thanks for all your replies. I took her for a 30-mile spin last night and she seems fine.

Cheers, Ed

Reply to
Edward

And the car? ;-)

Reply to
Layezee

I take it you like the word canister?

Ta, G.

Reply to
G-Man

The message from "G-Man" contains these words:

Plinth is good, too.

Reply to
Guy King

Amen to that.

Ta, G.

Reply to
G-Man

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