Has anyone ever heard of problems with the gas tank being semi-blocked? Here's my problem, and its not consistent which makes it even more frustrating, sometimes when I'm filling up my 03 Impreza RS, the gas pump fills up the gas line that leads into the gas tank faster than it can drain into the tank. This causes the pump to automatically stop pumping and I have to wait for the gas to drain into the tank for a couple seconds. I can literally hear the gas draining into the tank usually slowly... If I pump the gas Very slowly, the line won't fill up and the pump doesn't automatically stop until the tank is completely full. Like I said it isn't completely consistent either. When it isn't draining into the tank properly, it lasts for several weeks of fill-ups. However, for the last month I haven't had any problems. This has been happening off and on for the last year or so... Any ideas?! I figured it might have been semi-blocked, but since its so inconsistent, I have no idea anymore...
saem gas station and what time of day. cause i use the same pump at my BP and at night this happends to me where i have to hold the handle the whole time but during that day when the station is open it does not happend. and it does not allways happen. only when it is wet out. using that gas station for about 1year now and it happends every once in a while.
I have had this happen too, throws me off because I usually just take the pump out when it clicks/stops pumping. I'm too paranoid to put more in. Not sure what causes it, but you're not the only one who has to deal with it
When it happens to me, it happens for multiple fill-ups, no matter what gas station and time of day. I 'feel' like it happens more when its really hot/humid but I definitely might be wrong... It stinks b/c it takes like 10 minutes to fill up when it happens since I have to hold the handle so its just barely pumping....
I've heard of the breather tube being clogged, causing this issue. It's the small tube that runs up close to the top of the neck, if you look at it from below.
I've seen this happen before at the dealership. It could either be the breather tube, but most often its the rollover valve. (Stops the gas from draining out of the tank in case of a rollover) The rollover valve is usually part of the entire fuel filler neck.
If it is your filler neck and not rollover valve I can get some pics from my '02 bugeye to give you an idea what you are looking at. I'm dropping my gas tank this week (tonight?). I already have another out of the car as well, I can take pics of both. It's not too hard to get at the pipe initially. There are just a couple of bolts holding on the cover in the wheel well, 3 screws in side fuel filler flap. On the lower end of the filler neck though I'm not sure how all the hoses are hooked up. I'll take a look tonight though to see if it's easy enough to do without taking lots of parts out. after checking shop manual: It says to drain tank, (there are 2 drain plugs on each side of the saddle tank.) -then remove 2 evap lines, and air vent pipe w/ bracket. then just the bolts and bracket that hold the filler pipe on. (and filler hose) You should only need to jack the car up and remove wheel. I'm not sure if you'll need to drain the tank though. My spare tank had the filler removed and the tank pulled and it still has gas in it. if a new filler pipe is pricey let me know. if both the '02 and '05 pipes turn out the same I could sell you my spare.
atacamaR, that would awesome if you could send me or post those photos and anything you find that would be helpful! Thanks!
no problem I went through some of the pics I have taken already and this is the only useful one i have on hand. You can see the fuel filler neck as the cover was removed,it's really easy to remove. up top is 3 screws holding the filler pipe in, just follow it down below for the main filler hose that runs into the gas tank. the small lines to the right of the filler neck belongs to the air vent pipe. the rest (2 evap hoses that connect to the air vent pipe, the filler hose) are hidden from view, on top of the rear crossmember, which you can see in the photo. i'll take better ones and post them soonish.
The new subarus have a sticker on the fuel door that specifically says to not fill the tank further after it stops pumping on its own.
lol yeah and if I followed a sticker like that I'd have to stop 5 miles later to refill. All pumps say that same thing. They just don't want people over-filling their tanks if they just leave the pumping running with the latch
Fyi: I'll get to posting pics tomorrow but i dropped my fuel tank and filler neck tonight and snapped a few pics
Well, thats kinda true, its also so u dont "pack" the tank and flood ur charcoal canister causing evap system problems. I'v had customers come in with this problem on various makes and models, I almost always end up selling them the filler neck which usually replaces the breather tube as well, I've never had this not fix the problem. Im not saying that taking it off inspecting/cleaning it wouldn't fix the problem though... Thats where I would start IMO
I had this happen on my 98 OBS. It was a clogged breather tube in my case. The way I solved it was to wait until the tank was low on gas and then shot compressed air down there using my air compressor and a blow gun wand that fit in the hole decent enough. I heard the air bubbling in the tank so I knew I had a good seal. That cleared the problem and it didn't come back.
Back side of filler tube, the vent tubing is easily visible. bottom of filler tube, you can see how the solid vent tubes go through a plastic clip on the back side. Here is a shot from below. you can see the filler tube come in from the left. The black solid line is a vent line. In the pic if you move up from the end of that black line you will see where the two other vent lines come out and go to soft connections. (its also to the right of the subframe mounitng points you see) Note: you will have your rear subframe tin that might make some of these a bit more hidden and harder to access. Just unhook the 3 soft lines, filler hose, the 3 screws for the filler tube connection and 1 bracket and it all comes out easily. Here is my tank dropped, I left the main filler neck hose on since i was dropping the tank and I didn't want to risk gas pouring out if the tank tipped on me. that should give you a pretty good idea of what your looking at... I also like the suggestion above about shooting some compressed air in removed lines to see if you can blow the obstruction out.
