Problem putting petrol in cars

ClonmelHills

Has anyone any idea why,when you try to put petrol in a car, the pump 'clicks' off even though the car is half empty? Is it the pump or the car? It has happened to two friend's cars, a fiesta and a micra. And I have been sent to find out why?

Mr Benevolent

ClonmelHills wrote: »

Has anyone any idea why,when you try to put petrol in a car, the pump 'clicks' off even though the car is half empty? Is it the pump or the car? It has happened to two friend's cars, a fiesta and a micra. And I have been sent to find out why?

Was it the same pump for two different cars, or two different pumps? If two different pumps then it's your friend's fault.

AgileMyth

Fiddle around with it a bit. Put the nozzle in or out a bit further. They'll get the nack of it after a while.

L1011

Dodgy pump or a completly arseways way of putting the nozzle in to the filler neck. Two cars and different pumps would suggest arseways to me.

bmw535d

before i read your second line i was expecting e36 bmw..try turning the pump nozzle upsides down, thats the only way to fill an e36 so it could be the same in the cars you mentioned:)

ShayK1

I know what you're talking about and its very very annoying. I don't know why it happens but my way around it is simply not to squeez the tricker all the way. It fills slower but at least it fills.

Mena

I always thought it was some form of vapour lock/air in the fuel tank that causes the pump to disengage.

Filling slower generally sorts it (as does shaking the car about - though this may be totally imagined on my part).

daveharnett

Always found it a problem with micras. Afair the mechanism in the pump responds to back-pressure in the line from the fuel cap to the tank. For some reason, some cars allow pressure to build up sooner than the pump 'expects' - possibly not enough clearance between the filler nozzle and the fuel line?

challengemaster

Far as I was aware, there are sensors in nozzle to prevent overfill - when some petrol hits the sensor it knocks off the fuel flow - of course, having the pump in at an awkward angle or whatever can cause the pump to do it numerous times over the course of filling. Open to correction tho

daveharnett

Mena wrote: »

I always thought it was some form of vapour lock/air in the fuel tank that causes the pump to disengage.

Filling slower generally sorts it (as does shaking the car about - though this may be totally imagined on my part).

challengemaster wrote: »

Far as I was aware, there are sensors in nozzle to prevent overfill - when some petrol hits the sensor it knocks off the fuel flow - of course, having the pump in at an awkward angle or whatever can cause the pump to do it numerous times over the course of filling. Open to correction tho

Looks like you're both pretty right.

ClonmelHills

Thanks all for feedback and daveharnett for the link. So it is a partial vacumn? i do not really understand al that technical stuff

baalthor

Never had this prob with mark 1 or 2 micras but it drove me mad with fiat punto. Guy who had worked in filling station advised rotating pump handle upside down but that didnt work for me.
Eventually found that applying just enough pressure to the trigger to get the petrol flowing without the pump locking was the best solution.
Could take a long time to fill the tank though :-(
It also seemed to be worse when the tank was nearly empty.

Bigtoe107

I had this problem, but i figured out how to sort it. It is caused by the angle of the pump nozzle, try pushing it down, or lifting it up.

no1beemerfan

I have a micra and a laguna and it always happens on the micra. What I've figured out is the filler neck is narrower on the micra so it "backfills" with petrol thus triggering the pump handle to stop.

I can leave the pump nozzle fully in in the laguna and it works fine but with the micra I only put the nozzle in about an inch or two and I can pump away to my heart's content!

GTE

Its airlocking.

Basically, as already said there is a safety feature built in that detects fuel coming back up the pipe so it doesnt overfill.

The reason it happens is that the air rushing back up the pipe causes the pump to stop.

Its a mix of skinny filling pipes in the car and putting the nozzle in arseways.

Some cars just cause trouble and we cant do anything about it, but of course its the pump thats at fault, never the cars design. . .so say the owners lol

Lauder

On a similar note, why do petrol pumps no longer feature the clip that holds the trigger on? Like so you can take you hand off and let the pump fill 'handsfree', used to be very common before, but I havent seen a petrol station with one in ages. Very annoying when filling up an 60l tank.

GTE

LIGHTNING wrote: »

An EU law stopped that feature unfortunately

I believe that is linked to the US where they use that a lot and get in and out of their cars, causing static electricity and BOOM!

ottostreet

bmw535d wrote: »

before i read your second line i was expecting e36 bmw..try turning the pump nozzle upsides down, thats the only way to fill an e36 so it could be the same in the cars you mentioned:)

never had any problems with this on two e36s!

punto mk2's though....abolsutely terrible for clicking off.

BlackWizard

I never knew it worked like that..

I often fill up spare gallon tanks by hand and it can get messy because I don't push the nozzle in too far. From now on I guess Ill shove it in a good bit and it should stop before overflowing.

slimjimmc

bbk wrote: »

Its airlocking.

Basically, as already said there is a safety feature built in that detects fuel coming back up the pipe so it doesnt overfill.

The reason it happens is that the air rushing back up the pipe causes the pump to stop.

Its a mix of skinny filling pipes in the car and putting the nozzle in arseways.

Some cars just cause trouble and we cant do anything about it, but of course its the pump thats at fault, never the cars design. . .so say the owners lol

This has started happening to me lately at my regular filling station, if I use one particular pump it locks, use any other pump and it's fine, so yeah, in this case it is the pump.

bbk wrote: »

I believe that is linked to the US where they use that a lot and get in and out of their cars, causing static electricity and BOOM!

More likely it's to stop a situation where the nozzle falls onto the ground and just keeps pumping while the driver is obliviously wandering around the shop.

L1011

LIGHTNING wrote: »

An EU law stopped that feature unfortunately

Irish law. 30+ years ago. I've dug it up here before, it appears to only cover petrol pumps - its legit on diesel pumps and I know a tiny few places that still have it intact for those. I'd hope it is intact on HGV pumps!

GTE

slimjimmc wrote: »

More likely it's to stop a situation where the nozzle falls onto the ground and just keeps pumping while the driver is obliviously wandering around the shop.

Nopezies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFbqCtaHtxY
I think it was on Mythbusters, its very common over in the US of A.

We had them on our old pumps then one day when being serviced years ago they got taken off. (actually, now that I think of it they were left on the Diesel pumps)
The new ones (September of this year) dont have any, neither on diesel for the poster who was wondering. Whether thats widespread on diesel pumps of just the way we got em I dunno.

Mr Velo

I had this issue on a Toyota Corolla. It didn't matter how empty the damn tank was, I always had to fill it as slow as possible. Not easy to half squeeze the trigger whilst putting in 45/50L of fuel... time consuming and damn well annoying.

Mc Love

This used to happen in my old car (206) Sometimes it would be fine and other times it would click the whole time

demanufactured

MYOB wrote: »

Irish law. 30+ years ago. I've dug it up here before, it appears to only cover petrol pumps - its legit on diesel pumps and I know a tiny few places that still have it intact for those. I'd hope it is intact on HGV pumps!

As an ex Fuel Injection Engineer (pump boy) , I used to use the fuel cap wedged in the handle of the pumps that didnt have the lock on clips.

GTE

demanufactured wrote: »

As an ex Fuel Injection Engineer (pump boy)

Ahh yes, Im a Forecourt Fuel Injection Supervisor myself lol. Though my job title changes every time I think of it . . .