Overfilled! Gas Nozzle Didn't Click Off!!!

I've only had an auto shut-off fail to work once in 50 years. Sounds like the pump ran wide-open. Better to fill a Prius on the lowest notch. It's not THAT much slower, anyway.

What is that avatar pic?

 

I've never had that happen before, perhaps the pump was malfunctioning? Remember which pump you used, and try to avoid it the next time your fuel up.

 

Yep, I had a bad pump nozzle once.

It was the only time I ever got in over 9 gallons.

Now, the ethical dilemma is - Do I enter a 'correction factor' in my lifetime mileage calculations for the fuel I never got to burn, or do I count it because it is fuel I bought and 'consumed'?

 

Yep......
about the 1st month I had mine this happened to me......gas all down the side of my new chick magnet :angry:
I notified the gas station attendent but he didn't give a rats nice person.....so I called the local fire department and told them there was a bunch of gas spilt all over this guys station island due to a faulty nozzle.

I've haven't had this problem since!

 

I had the same thing happen on my last fill up.
Got to about the 10.5 gallon mark (while just barely squeezing the trigger to get that last bit in), noticed
the fuel starting to creep up in the fill up spout, so I stopped, pulled out the nozzle, and my Prius (like an overzealous fraternity brother during a beer chugging contest) just belched up about a pint of petrol, splashing it on my feet!
I chalked it up to over-expanding the bladder.
Live & learn....

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rancid13 @ May 8 2006, 01:26 PM) [snapback]251671[/snapback]</div>

I had that happen to me only once...on an old chevy. The pump didnt stop. I never went to that station again; it closed a few weeks later. :lol:

 

Generally, when I think I've filled very close to what I think is the brim, I start burping the nozzle every 0.2 or 0.1 gallons to prevent overfill and spit-up.

If I see gasoline, it's full.

 

I've had it happen, but never with our Prius. For me, the couple of times it has happened were always when I was wearing good clothes while on my way to a meeting or the airport. :huh:

Tom

 

The hole is the prius is a perfect fit for the nozzle.
If you have it all the way in with a good seal and it malfuncitions "or" in the act of trying to top it off you can do the same thing.

what I think happens is the seal is so tight that you literally "inflate" the stretchable rubber tank with the pressure on the incoming gas... when you pull it out, its like an inflated water balloon.

The way I"ve avoided it when topping off is to listen to when its close to full you can hear it.
Put the nozzle on its slowest speed and pull out the nozzle just a bit so its no longer an airtight fit. When it tripps off the second time, you're full.

If your really brave, you can pull the nozzle all the way out and put it in slowly until you actually "see" gas... then your really full!.. a bit risky for spilling if your clumsy at all.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(windstrings @ May 8 2006, 10:12 PM) [snapback]251997[/snapback]</div>

Sound more like a water rocket to me. Too bad it happened, though.

I try to use the same station and even the same pump. I don't use the automatic filler.

 

Bummer... that has never happenned to me in 30k miles. I always fill my tank when it gets half empty. I'm not sure if that is related, but it's possible that having half a tank of gas "pre stretches" the bladder so it's not as flexible. Just a theory.

Probably you just got a bum nozzle though.

 

I guess this isn't an anomaly with the prius, happened to me once, went up to 10.3 gallons before it clicked off. I was scared something might ignite when pulled away but nothing happened, just wasted fuel. . . Same thing happened a few weeks later, but i stopped it before it got out of hand and only spilled a few drops . . . it's been probably 4 months and it hasn't happened again. I really have no idea why but i just keep track of about how much fuel should be added and stop it if it goes too far past the estimated amount i need.

 

happened to me once.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(aaf709 @ May 8 2006, 10:36 PM) [snapback]252008[/snapback]</div>

I bet your right.. its the excess air compressing more than the rubber expanding.

 

It just happened to me today at Costco. I was expecting to add about five gallons (half tank), and at 8.25 gallons the nozzle began to leak excess fuel. This was at the slowest pump setting.

Oddly, only about a pint spilled, even though it should have been a three-gallon overfill. Where did it go?

The attendant had them give me a refund for 2.5 gallons, which was nice. She said it's happened before on the slow setting with their pumps. But for 4c a gallon savings and an average of five gallons per fill-up, I won't bother buying fuel there any more.

Based on my calculations, 5.25 gallons seems to be the proper quantity for this fill-up.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rick Auricchio @ May 21 2006, 01:24 PM) [snapback]258911[/snapback]</div>

It must have stretched the bladder.

P.S. I did not know there was a Costco in Cambria.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(IsrAmeriPrius @ May 21 2006, 06:23 PM) [snapback]259011[/snapback]</div>

That's what I was thinking. And it's probably all the way up in the filler neck. I assume with a normal shutoff, which happens immediately upon a backsplash of fuel, the fuel drains back down the filler neck. So it normally isn't full all the way up. I'll know when I see how long this tank (plus filler neck) lasts.

San Luis Obispo, since August 2005.

 

thankfully in NJ we do not have pump it ur-self!

 

I did it last week on my second time filling the car. Kept thinking it should be cutting off any second, and then when I pulled the nozzle out, it spewed everywhere. But I think that's the same pump where I overfilled my previous car, so I won't be going back to that station! And I was much more careful filling up this weekend on a long road trip.