Gas pump issue

Mar 01, 2005 6 Replies

I've found that I have to pump gas _very_ slowly when filling up my 2004 Prius to avoid have the pump's cut-off valve (or whatever it's called) stop the flow almost right away. When I say _very_ slowly I mean a mere trickle -- filling the tank can take five minutes. I'll certainly bring this up the next time I bring the car in for scheduled maintenance, but I was wondering if my experience is typical.


You Californ's have those fume recovery hoses, don't you? That may be part of the issue, but not likely the primary cause. We may be dealing with the fuel tank neck being too small for the flow rate of American pumps. I've noticed at about six gallons a minute, mine does the same thing, so I try to use about three-quarter's of a squeeze on the handle.

KK

Not a problem with my 2002.

I had a similar problem with another car, and found that the angle of the filler neck and the particular nozzle used by my station did not like each other. The nozzle woudl shut off almost immediately unless I turned it about 1/3 clockwise.

Nozzle. Isn't that a funny looking word? The more I look at it the more it seems wrong.

Nozzle Nozzle Nozzle Nozzle

Yup. Looks wrong.

Daniel

I live in Jacksonville. :-)

I'd be absolutely delighted with six gallons a minute. Two gallons a minute is more like it.

On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 15:32:37 -0600, dbs_ snipped-for-privacy@tanj.com wrote: snip

Probably phonetic derivative from the German for nose: "nase". A nasenwarmer is a tobacco pipe.

Rod

I had the same problem until I figured out that I'd pushed the nozzle too far into the filler neck. On my previous car (an old Opel) I'd always pushed the nozzle as far in as possible, but with the Prius I have to leave a few inches off or the cut-off valve would stop the flow immediately.

Oh, and unfortunately I've had to test the car in minus 20 C temperatures (that's -4 F) during the past week. She's run beatifully, although she uses somewhat more fuel when it's colder.

Thanks. I'll give it a try and report back.

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