I can't fill my tank.

Many people have always thought to be this some sort of issue with the bladder that's in the tank if this is a US Canada spec Prius It's like a well tank bladder kind of I don't know much about it I know in Australia and other countries they don't have it so I guess because I don't think the gas tank would be readily available in the States and then if it was I can't imagine the cost It would be probably cheaper to bring a another tank here from somewhere else that takes a real fuel pump doesn't have a bladder etc. I don't think you can just check the bladder and the internals readily

 

Yeah I guess that's probably so but at what point does it set the mil
or a code . I haven't looked at the online Toyota manual but I believe there's troubleshooting for that too It seems odd we're the only country I think us in Canada that get this bladder tank I believe everybody else countrywise gets a normal tank with a fuel pump in it no bladder.

 

Those can be the frustrating jobs, where you're pretty sure you've checked everything the troubleshooting steps told you to check, and there wasn't any smoking gun. When it happens to me, a lot of the time, I need to go back to one of the tests I already did, and rethink how I interpreted it. That might not be the answer in your case though.

I will guess something not working right in the ORVR system for sure. The tank bladder is there all the time, and people do complain about it, but it isn't known for going overnight from 10 gallons to a third of a gallon.

I'm sure there is an explanation. Sometimes you just have to convince yourself that the process is worth following. One idea might be to wire a meter to the vapor pressure sensor and see what that reading does while you are trying to fill. If you know someone with a working guinea-pig Gen 2 Prius who will let you hook a meter to their sensor and compare what happens when they fill, so much the better.

 

Ah so we actually fill the bladder with fuel Not really like a well tank but kind of right In a well tank You're feeling the tank steel and at the top of that there's a bladder that pushes up against the airspace above the water and that's pressurized to a Schrader valve with air to whatever PSI it's supposed to be or you're setting up for and that's that. In the Prius we're actually filling I imagine what would be some sort of a synthetic rubber bladder or flask that's inside of the tank It looks like from the picture anyway.

 

Chap in the picture you posted is the little blue area just outside the bladder marked fuel tank is that really the fuel pump or where is the fuel pump in the diagram Is it inside the bladder or running dry on the outside of the bladder so it's not an in tank pump per SE?

 

The fuel pump is outside the bladder, but it's not "running dry"; it's in a separate, non-flexible container inside there, as you see in the drawing, connected by tubing to the bladder so that container is also filled with fuel seeking its level. The fuel level sender is in that separate container too, rather than being inside a floppy bladder.

The dark blue area surrounding the bladder is air space, but unlike a well tank that air space isn't supposed to be sealed off and pressurized all the time. When you're using the engine, it should be easy for fresh air to come in and take up the space as the bladder contracts. When you're refueling, it should be easy for the surrounding air to leave as the bladder expands.

But if something is wrong with that plumbing and the air is stuck there, then it really is like your well tank when you refuel, and like your well tank it might send the fuel back atcha when you take the fill nozzle out.

 

Are you certain the tank is not already full?
What indication is showing on the fuel gauge?

Only asking because I've had many people that have disconnected the 12v battery and then freaked out when they reconnected it and the fuel gauge showed only one blinking dot. Several immediately headed to gas station thinking they were in danger of running out of fuel and freaked again when they weren't able to add 8 gallons.

 

Chapman's diagram is for the 04-05 Prius, but it shows most of the components.

There are some minor changes for 06-09 cars (the leak detection pump module replaces the vent solenoid).

I have a smoke machine, so I would pump smoke into the filler neck and start removing parts from the fresh air filter back until "normal" airflow out of the fuel tank is restored.

You might try something similar. Disconnect the fresh air line then add fuel. See if there's an improvement. Keep doing that to see if you can find a section that's causing your restriction.

Could be the pump module or fresh air line. Could be the filler neck or canister. Maybe it's the overflow valve in the furl tank bladder.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I think I'll be looking at getting a European or an Australian fuel tank It's happened buddy throw it on a boat to me shouldn't cost much at all if I ever have this problem right now Phil will shoot back when I get to about 8 gallons and then I manually fill it slowly to about 9.3 I'm usually down to close to fumes I'm thinking but I can never get it over 9.3 in the 11 gallon tank I've had it cut off at 3 gallons before but that's just because I didn't have the nozzle situated correctly The minute I fix that it goes straight up to about 8.8 8.2 8.7 somewhere in there and then I might be able to slowly get to 9 9.4 somewhere in there. Generally feeling the tank on my car flashing light to full is about I don't know 4 minutes

 

But when you're pumping gas at half or full volume that air is a lot more stout and the volume is higher than blowing maybe try a shop vac turned around on the blow setting like you know a little two horsepower job and not the big rigid 5 or 6 horsepower and see if correspondingly air comes out of all those places again You know it like quadruple the volume because like the others have said it seems like when the bladder is expanding as in filling the air around in the rest of the tank is not able to escape fast enough and it shuts your pump off may create some gurgling in the best stuff spits out at you all that mess.

 

Blowing air into a fuel tank, especially at high volume or pressure, increases the amount of oxygen present in the tank and mixes it aggressively with the gasoline vapor.

It is a thing to avoid.

Shops that test evap systems will have equipment to do pressure tests with pure nitrogen, or something else that will not explosively combine with the fuel.

 

It does this with several different fill nozzles, at different stations? I ask because a while back I encountered a nozzle which shut off very early no matter what I tried. But the car filled up normally elsewhere. I'm 99% sure you already tried different pumps, but maybe you are one of those people who always goes to the same pump at the same station, and if they did something to it to make it Prius incompatible...