Gas came a gushin'

Been lurking here a year & joined PC when I bought my Driftwood 07 in 8/07. Very aware of gas fill issues thanks to PC. Never had any problem filling up. No false click offs. Always hung pump up at first click. Never overfilled. Last Friday was the first pretty hot day of the season. It hit 82 by noon. MPG's went from 44 to 52 in my commute. Stopped to get gas at the end of the day. Put hose in nice & tight. Immed. started getting constant click off of pump. Checked pump insertion. Constant click off. Wth? Oh crap. No problem I thought I'll just hold the fill handle so its filling at the slowest possible rate & it will click off if I fuel close to the top of the neck. Bad procedure but I knew how many gallons she usually takes and was not any where near full. Plus I had never had the gas a gushin' problem. In fact never ever had any problem pumping gas. So I wrongly assumed that the pump would refuse to pump any more gas when the fuel reached the top of the neck.Very wrongly. So I start slowly filling numbers barely moving & pump constantly clicking off till not only did it not click off at the top at least a gallon of gas shot out. I was closely watching the pump so the second it started gushing I let go but it threw out at least a gallon of gas. Like it just released a bunch of trapped air behind alot of gas. Enough fuel it required a sand down by the very unhappy operator.
Apologies to every other poster who I thought was looney tunes who reported same problem. It appears the problem is maybe temp warm fuel related one way or the other and it seems when the the pump starts doing the multiple click off thing watch out! It clicks off except when you need it the most.
I wrongly assumed it would click off when full but not when your constantly re-clicking. I was thinking that must put the nozzle of the pump submerged in fuel and no longer shuts off. But hey thats not right. Never saw that before. In a regular car if the nozzle is submerged in fuel it will not allow the handle to lock. Just click click click. Not this car. She keeps pumping even submerged. There must be a unique siphoning atmosphere in the tank that confuses the auto click off of a gas station pump when a certain temp or fuel volume is reached. Or maybe the filling fuel level is turbulent because of air trapped in the bladder and not filling evenly thereby never submerging the nozzle until its too late. Trapped air clicking pump off till fuel is at top of nozzle forcing huge trapped air bubble out nozzle with alot of fuel with it.
BTW, that post earlier post by bblad123 of the tank system was excellent. This car has the tank system of a space shuttle.I bet there is a very minor design flaw in the siphoning system. I bet the system is so tight air cannot get out of the tank under certain temp/fuel remaining circumstances. That would explain the constant click off. But the pump clicked off the very second I tried pumping fuel so its not a warm fuel issue because it refused to even begin pumping.
If she does this again I'm going to pack it up and go to another station. If it does it there too I'm going to take alot of time filling it up. Put some fuel in & wait and see if turbulent/trapped air in tank is an issue. Vent the fuel fill hole for a little bit. Kinda circumvents 0 vapor emissions I know. Take my time and see if it helps.

 

It might be a worn pump but its the same pump I always use. I have a friend who works at a BP right next to my job so I always get gas there and visit. First time with the instant click off. If I experience it again I'm going to wait and see if its an air bubble thing or move along and try another station. The car was very different that day too in that my mileage was changing very rapidly. Usually or at least for the last few months it has been holding steady at 44 or 45 mpg's on the MFD. That day for the first time my mpg's computation on the MFD was changing every mile or so. Radically like 2 or 3 mpg's difference every block or so. The mpg meter on the bar graph display not the other one that shows instantaneous use. Up then down back & forth. Never saw it do that before. I thought something was wrong and was waiting for the car to throw a DTC it was that strange especially when I hit 62 mpg's at the end of my commute. Never came close to getting that kind of mileage. Best I've done since new is maybe 52.
Very wacky. Although I am running fresh Mobil 1 and fresh Red Line Full Synthetic D6 Trans fluid which the car really likes and now have just around 6500 miles and it was the first really hot day at 82 so maybe the car is just loosening up.
Constant learning process with this car but I have learned one thing though. When its doing that multiple pump click off watch out.Thanks!

 

Yes level ground and 4 pips showing. No I didn't try rocking the car but thats a good idea. I didn't think about trying it because its my first pump clicking off experience with this car. Do you believe also that its a trapped air bubble? I suspect that given how much volume of gas it belched out. At least a gallon. I know now when she's clicking be careful and worst case pump in a lot less then you know it can hold and compute in the phantom 2 gallons too.Thanks!