Filling up is a real pain

Hmmmmmm...

Perhaps don't insert the pump handle as far as it will go, just part-way.

At least this shouldn't happen to you any more often than every 500 miles.

 

Avoid spilling gas everywhere by not putting in more gas than the tank can hold. I know this is stating the obvious, but it's helpful to have some expectation on how much gas the car is going to want. For example if the MFD reads 50 MPG over 300 miles, you know you're going to need about 6 gallons. So if it clicks off after 5.75 you know you're done.

To avoid premature click-off, try turning the handle upside-down when fueling. My car has never experienced "bladder problems" so to speak, but my wife's can be a pain. The upside-down handle trick, combined with the expectation of how much gas the car will need, has worked around this issue for us in all cases thus far.

 

You are a victim of the notorious Gas TANK BAG. Just wait it gets worse in winter! Fill at the lowest pump speed. All those other people around you are watching. When you do a fill up at 8.57 gallons they swallow their tongues. Be ready from time to time there is the odd SUV driver who will ask you "what are you getting?". Be ready! Ask him/her if they really want to know. Give them worst tank, best tank and life time average. Support them they do not know. I have a 3 tank average on my spread sheet and I really think it is a better gauge of how I am doing that a one tank calculation. We are about to take a nose dive, winter gas is coming!!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hdrygas @ Sep 6 2006, 12:26 AM) [snapback]315021[/snapback]</div>

Capacity is reduced, that's it. There isn't any behavior change of the bladder. It just gets smaller. And that really doesn't become noticable until the temperature drops below 20F.

 

Just don't keep filling up because you think you should be able to put more in. It's nice to imagine going weeks and weeks between fillups, but that splashback is causing more air pollution than driving your car around for that whole time.

If you have to, keep a calculator in the glovebox and do like Taco Mel suggested. I have never tried to top off a tank, and have never had the bladder reject extra gas. I've also never put in more than about 8 gallons through 7 tanks of gas so far. even after 400+ miles between fillups. I am perfectly happy to fill up more often (which is still less often than my other car) to avoid problems like that.

 

Move to New Jersey or Oregon.

 

How much gas do you want to spill on your feet? Stop trying to top it off and you'll be fine.

 

I've only put gas in my 2006 three times so far (yeah, it's still new...) so I'd hardly call myself an expert. However, it's been fairly drama free. I fill the tank when I'm down to 1 square on the fuel gauge lit, give or take, but before the warning light is flashing. So far, it's taken 9.1, 9.5 and 8.9 gallons, respectively, at that point, in the vicinity of 400 miles per tank full.

I set the pump to run at its slow fill click and top off holding it in the filler. I let it sit a few seconds after it clicks off to prevent regurgitation. Nothing spills, I'm happy...

Godfrey

 

Simply, just don't top off. http://www.epa.gov/donttopoff/

 

It's been said already: don't top off.

To go into more detail, if you just fill till it clicks, then unless there's something wrong with the pump, the car will never squirt gas back at you. However, if you insist on topping off, you run the risk of expanding the bladder beyond where it "wants to be". so long as the pump is in the hole, it will be able to maintain pressure on the bladder, keeping it expanded. Once you remove the pump, however, the bladder can once again contract to where it "wants to be", forcing gas out of the hole and all over the side of the car, the ground, and your shoes. Try some of the suggestions here, like using a slower pump setting. Also, try refilling at different stations - your favorite pump might just be clicking off too early and a different one could solve that problem (so you don't have to top off). others have also noted that the amount of gas they can get into the car varies depending on the angle of the car (ie if the drivers side is tiped towards you or not, or if the top is higher than the back).

So consider all of this, and remember - everytime you spill gas, you're sending up more hydrocarbons into the atmospheres than those gas guzzlers next to you do over multiple tanks...

 

I am also a newbie & have filled only three times.
What works for me is to fill at a mid speed. When the auto off cuts the pump off, I can put about one more gallon in with like eight more auto click offs, & that's it.
No spills thus far.
Best !

 

Just don't top it off! (oops, I said it again)

If it clicks off then think of that as the penalty for driving such an awesome car and just fill up sooner than you might if you had put 1 more gallon in.

 

I agree, don't top off.

I put the pump in and fill it up, no more trouble than any other car I've had.

 

I'm going to pile on. Use the slowest fill setting and don't top off. I never have any trouble with filling, and gas never comes back out; just don't overfill. Even at the slowest fill setting, you still get done faster than any other vehicle.

Tom

 

I've filled up 30-something times at a number of different stations and have yet to experience any gas spillage due to overfilling/fuel bladder overflow. I'm not sure if the pumps here in CA have speeds that you can set, but I usually just put the nozzle into the tank and press the trigger then use the auto-hold lever and let it fill up on its own. Occasionally after shutoff I'll pump in an additional little bit (likely only a few drops, LOL) then wait a few seconds before removing the nozzle. No spillage and no regurgitation mussing up the paint job or my shoes.

 

Just as a different viewpoint about topping off... (Sorry about a longish post.)

I always sort-of top off, but I've been doing so for over thirty-five years (gads, I'm getting old - maybe that explains my attitudes in other threads, but I digress...) I also always experiment with a new car to see what is and is not possible, and have some observations after ten fill-ups (fills-up?).

The absolute best configuration is to have the fuel door at the highest point of the car - find a station where you can put the right-front corner of the car downhill relative to the fuel door. That allows maximum freedom for the bladder to expand in the tank with minimum binding. Fill the bladder as slowly as you can; again, this allows the bladder to skootch (that's the technical term) around in the tank as it needs to while the load increases gradually. My favorite station allows me to do this, and I can get the bladder danged near completely full on the first run - the "top-off" at that point is just rounding to the next dime or quarter.

Think about a balloon in a box, with the mouth of the balloon coming out just below the top corner of the box. If you fill the balloon with a liquid, with the mouth anywhere other than its highest point (by tilting the box), you're going to have an air pocket at the top of the box, opposite the mouth. If the liquid covers the mouth, you're going to have pressure build up in the air pocket. If the mouth is sealed (or even mostly sealed), the pressure is going to dump quickly when the seal is removed, by causing fluid to puke out the mouth.

You have a couple of options. The best one is to have the filler port as high as possible, which minimizes the air pocket's potential size. This, in combination with filling slowly, allows the air to bleed out gracefully. Remember that today's fuel nozzles are required to have a vapor recovery system, so they have a built-in vacuum to pull air out as the tank fills. The vacuum system can't keep up if you fill fast. If you can't put the fuel door uphill, it's even more important to fill slowly, so the bladder can expand gracefully and you can let the nozzle's vapor recovery system keep up with removing the air being displaced. One thing I always do is bonk the car with my butt as it fills - that keeps the fuel sloshing in its space, and sloshes the air over to the neck for bleed-out. I haven't had a car puke on me in decades.

For top-off, if you insist on doing it (as I do, but I don't recommend it, blah blah, usual disclaimers here), give the car a few good butt-bonks after the first shut-off (I usually pull the nozzle out of the port) to burp the system, then run the top-off in very slowly with the nozzle shoved as far into the fuel port as possible - that'll keep the fuel below the tubes leading to the car's vapor recovery system. Don't be too aggressive in topping off - if it will only take a tiny bit, give up. If you go to a station with well-maintained equipment, the nozzles will probably be reliable enough to shut off cleanly (if not, you may not want to top off as aggressively).

Bloviation off.

 

<_< Not sure about the other 49 states, but in Texas, the fuel nozzles and pumps have a "Do Not Top Off" warning posted.

I have filled my Prius fuel tank 54 times (so far) and only once did I get a fuel spill at a discount station. I do not try to squeeze in every last quart of fuel in. I fill on the last unblinking pip on the GUESS gauge and am unconcerned about "making a statement" regarding how much fuel I was able to pump. I do not pump fuel on a slope (as one poster commented) since there have been issues noted about pumping fuel into a Prius on a unlevel surface.