Fuel Remained in Rim of Filler Neck

Hi all,

Nice to meet you! From reading the forums, it seems like this fueling problem is pretty common, but I had some specific things that are bugging me so I thought I would ask! Apologies in advance for the very long post. So yesterday, I went to refuel the Prius after it showed 1 bar less than half full. This is my parents' car so I have refueled it before with no problems, but the first time at this pump (also it was parked outside for several days and is usually parked in a garage, although the weather has been relatively mild here; it was in the 40s yesterday). As soon as I started the nozzle (at BP), it clicked off less than a second later, and this happened repeatedly; tried a different pump at the same station, with no luck. The attendant says to try pulling it out a little bit/pushing it in more since sometimes their nozzles are finicky, but nothing is working. I've fueled at this station several times before with another car with no problems. She tried doing it and had the same problem, and in the process of her adjusting the nozzle by moving it in and out, I heard some gurgling and saw that some fuel got into the rim part of the filler neck, about a few milliliters. I asked her to stop, and at that point only maybe 2.5 gallons had gotten into the tank. As I drove away, the fuel tank registered as full...

So this is the first time our Prius has had this problem, and I'm probably being neurotic about the whole thing, but my 3 questions are:

(1) Is it a problem that a few mL of fuel were left sitting in the bottom of the rim part of the filler neck (hopefully I'm describing this correctly, this is the closest image I could find, the fuel was sitting in the bottom of the wide rim/vestibule -- the one that looks like a shiny crescent moon) just before the descent into the fuel hole)


To the best of my knowledge, nothing leaked out pas the metal filler neck, and so the fuel cap fully covered this sitting fuel. I drove about 1 mile away from the gas station to a store and for some reason decided to check the filler neck there, and the fuel was still sitting there. My dad said that it should evaporate so I left it alone, and about an hour later drove back home 6 miles with no problems. How fast would this sitting fuel evaporate/would it cause any problems akin to topping off/would it be a safety hazard??

(2) If this happens in the future (re: spilling fuel into the rim), what is the best thing to do? Just cover it with the cap if it doesn't get outside of the neck? Or how do you safely clean it?

(3) Any thoughts on why the fuel gauge would read as full with only 2.5 gallons put in? Does it have to do the fuel left in the rim?

My dad was telling me to just estimate how much fuel is left and let the tank settle before trying to refuel again. I will definitely try the venting strategy mentioned in several posts along with filling slowly (I don't use the automatic latch). I only drive once a week, but if you guys think I should check it out earlier, to see what the gauge reads or check the filler neck again, I definitely want to do that.

Thanks for your time!
-leaf