Fuel filling dilemma...

[shmee150]

Hey,

In May, when my car was 8 months old I filled it up one time at my usual filling station next to my office and after filling the entire tank it didn't automatically cut out so the backwash flew diesel out everywhere, on my arms, all over the side of the car.

I thought you know, bad luck that won't happen again. The next week at the same station it did indeed happen again; very unhappy about that!

Then I decided to not use that fuel station again and went to other places and for a while it was all good, until eventually another one that I used on multiple occassions did the same thing, fantastic!

Twice more it's done it, (5 in total) evenly distributed time periods since, possibly every 2nd/3rd fill and no pattern that I can tell in what pump nozzles cause it to happen, they've been at a variety of different companies etc...

So I had previously called BMW twice and on both times they told me that it wasn't a known problem and couldn't have been the fault of the car but due to a faulty pump not cutting out; easy to believe when you've only been to one garage. But now that it's happened at a number of different places I decided to go and see them.

They were very insistent that it was not the car, and nothing in the system could cause this; it's entirely the fault of the pumps. Obviously couldn't explain how it happens to one person 5 times in as many months and I suggested that maybe it was a faulty design that easily gets caught out and stops the pump from knowing if it's full, they said they'd never heard of another car with the same problem.

Quite frankly I have no idea what to do; it seems to me as though there's probably something wrong with the car but I have no idea what and Mr BMW is adamant there's not and refuses to look at it without charging me a lot which I don't want them to do of course, so I guess I'm hoping somebody here may have a suggestion and be able to help work out what's going wrong.

Any ideas are appreciated before I go back to them when it happens again...

Thanks,

Tim

[Macca916]

Its the pump that has the auto cut off not the tank. Some tank filler design can cause early cutoff if the backwash (fuel coming back up the filler) happens early or it doesnt drain down the filler neck fast enough (usually cause by poor breather design or blockage. Perhaps your not filling with the full fuel flow ie as your sensitive to it over filling you might be trickling it in and not triggering the pumps cut off as a result?

[Nifty]

IMHO even though it would be an incredible coincidence, I just don't see how this could be the fault of the car in any way either. Once the hole towards the tip of the nozzle is covered by fluid it should automatically shut off the fuel flow. I cannot think of a reason in the design or manufacture of the car which could cause the problem you describe.

If it happens again, you could always get a different car to fill up at the same pump to see what the result would be.

[JimD]

Around here you can't set the filler handle to keep filling by itself, you have to keep your hand on it. It sounds like you can where you are. You may want to "do it by hand" at least the last couple gallons and pick a station in a relatively quiet area. I can generally hear when my gas tank is getting about full. If you fill when there are not a lot of other people filling up, it would also tend to help you get full flow which should help trigger the auto shutoff.

Jim

[cagekicker]

that's not good!

[Lester]

There is nothing on the car that controls the pump shutting off. Make sure to have the nozzle inserted all the way, and when the tank is getting close to full - back off on the nozzle a little. Some of the newer pumps are pumping fuel at a high rate.