Filling Gas Tank
 

What's the best way to fill your vehicle with fuel?


I usually just take the handle out after it shuts off the first time. Maybe round up to the next dollar when paying with cash. I figure all the pumps shut off at about the same time, so why chance wasting gas by overfilling or having it heat up and overflow later?

You know a funny thing happened to my G/F's 02 Monte, she waits till it shuts off, then runs it slowly till it about runs out on the ground. That practice was causing her CEL light to come on, in fact she ended up taking it in, and they told her that! I used to do 2 shutoff's one fast, and then slow. Now I just run the pump full blast till one click...

yup one click outher wise it shoots all over the place

I fill till first stop/click, and then round to the nearest $.05.

Good question. I USED to run the pump up to the nearest amount ending in 5 or 0. In the past month I've read an article on the Car Talk website, and brothers "Click and Clack" say NOT to do so for good reason: you can ruin your gasoline-vapor recovery system, so they say.

https://www.cartalk.com/content/eco/tips.html

Tip number 3 tells the tale. I do not consider myself a "tree hugger" but there are good tips on this webpage. Enjoy!

I hold the trigger full blast and stop once it clicks. Then I give it a jiggle after it clicks to get out the last few drops.

One day I filled up (stopping after first click) and then parked my car pointing up a hill. When I came back (4 hours later?) there was gasoline on the ground. lol

Ya so I definitely wouldn't do more than one click in my car, though that is probably just a "my car" thing :).

I like the theology of most pumps will probably shut off about the same time.

There's no option for "Let the gas pump person put as much in as he/she feels like."

I run it to one click every time so that I can have the most accurate FE measurements.

Before I became FE obsessed, I would always run fill it up until you could see gas. My dad has done that for the past 30 years, done it in every car we've ever owned, and nothing has ever came from it. I don't buy that it's a potential problem. Usually the pump cuts off pretty early anyhow.

SVO, they have people to pump the gas where you are? I don't know of anywhere around here that does that.

I think only two states require stores to pump. Increases jobs and all that.

i dunno i fill it up untill it gets annoying afeter every second the pump clicks off. never had a problem with vapor collecting nor do i smell any or see any spilt fuel anywhere... i have filled it up to the brim before and nothings ever spilt out from expanding temps. now hills yes i wil belive that...

but i would not rely on pumps shutting off all at the same time. unless you used the same station same pump every time you filled up. ive had it before where i would put it in turn it on full blast and it didnt shut off one time and fuel came out all over the place...so dont rely on pumps shutting off at the same time cuz they dont...

i know that the CEL will come on if the gas cap is not tight enough on newer cars...but i have never heard nor have any of my mechanic friends that too much fuel will cause the CEL light to come on...

I use a small notepad to write down things like date, time, odometer reading, tripmeter reading, and location. At the gas station, I stick the gas nozzle into my gas tank, pull the trigger, set the trigger lock, then while the gas is being pumped, using the data on my notepad and the calculator feature in my cell phone, I'm already calculating the number of miles I drove and waiting for the pump to finish pumping to enter in the number of gallons used to calculate the fillup to fillup overall average fuel economy. I only fillup until the first click because if I fill up with more gas, then I'd have to not only recalculate the fillup to fillup overall average fuel economy, but since I base my fuel economy calculations assuming that the fuel used since last fillup is the same as the amount of fuel I just pumped, mathematically that would make the gallons higher, therefore the fuel economy lower. :)

The pump shuts off when the gas foams back up the filler tube and that can happen at different filll levels depending upon how fast the pump you are using pumps the gas. I get another gallon in my tank after the first click so that is another day or two of driving / 10% more in the tank.

Full top off on our Hondas. Run it right up the filler neck, thru the baffle, right up to the lip of the filler tube. Same with the Ranger. No cel's, no codes and no wee wee. From 1st click off. I can get 2 more gallons in the cars.

Only cars Ive ever had that didn't like full top offs where GM. Some would wee wee up front where the canister was or back in the tank area.

psy

I fill all the way up. after it clicks I proceed very slowly till I can see/hear the fuel coming up to the top. I have had no problems with this method.
One click fills can vary quite a bit from tank to tank, at least in my experience. But I guess over time your average mpg should be the same.

At Costco, there is a sign on the pump
 

Paraphrasing: Save money and save the environment, don't top off

I stopped topping off when I started shopping there. Haven't had a spill since.

Does anybody only fill 1/2 way to try to carry less weight? With long commutes and construction here, I don't dare.

M

ma4t

Ive seen that sign and heard the argument for years on topping off.

We are not on the EPA's dirty air list here. I work to not fill up on ozone alert days. As well as not mow the yard. If I do have to fill up on alert days. I do it in the early morning hours.

The way I look at it. I go thru less fill up cycles in a year due to toping off. That extra 2 gallons gets me from 75 to 110 miles more driving per tank in the Civic. Also the pump I use. Yes I use the same pump 98% of the time is very controlable. I never have a spill. Thats not to say there arent spills at my filling station. The oil burners are the worse. Its nothing for them to blow a qt. to gallon out on the ground. It happens weekly.

psy

with the sunfire i fill up at the same station and at the same pump everytime. well i try to, sometimes there are other people so need to go to a different pump.
i pump it all the way to the top of the tank, right to the top of the filler neck. i have had no problems with CEL, i do spill sometimes but, with our pumps we can vary the speed at which the gas comes out, so i go as slow as i can. that works most of the time.

Slow-fill
 

We don't have any tricky vapor recovery pumps, so I generally rest the nozzle in the tube about an inch away from the spring (so it's essentially straight in the filler tube and not jammed in at an angle).

Then, the fun part -- the first notch of 3 on the pump handle and wait (I'm making the assumption that a slower fill is a bit more accurate). In the meantime, I can clean out the car or find a pen to record the mileage :rolleyes:

In KC we do have Ozone Alert days, so I usually wait until the evening to fill anyways. I haven't "topped off" a tank for years -- too much trouble with the vehicle's vapor recovery and the Ozone issues -- plus I've had splash-back too many times to admit -- even on full-first-click's.

RH77

It's 4 miles from work over the bridge to Missouri.
I try to go to the same pump, set it on the slowest fill speed, & stop filling at the first click.
With the price difference from Illinois, I can usually buy a free Powerball ticket.
I'm hoping the pursuit of FE will make me a millionaire!:eek:

i do the same, except i just write down the necesary stuff like date odometer reading and gallons put in. (turns out i fill up twice a month)

easy to calculate mpg (the only real way to get accuarte) is to take current milleage-milleage last fill up all divided by gallons that you just put in

MPG =miles driven/gallons used :D

and then of couse reset the tripometer:thumbup:

I've settled on fast till i'm about a gallon away from where i think it will stop then slow down till it stop then go one more stop and thats all.

I stop on the first click unless Im very close to rounding a dollar. This way, you know exactly at what level you filled your tank to. The next time you pump gas, at the first click, whatever the pump says you pumped, thats the exact amount you burned.

huh? all pumps pump at a different rate and depending on how foamy the gas is it will shut off at different intervals...ive noticed the pump will slow considerably down if someone is on the other side of the pump pumping gas...

I'm surprised nobody only fills 1/2 way or less to save weight...if every gallon is 6.3 pounds then (at least in my car) a 1/2 tank saves about 50lbs. Is the extra gas used stopping at the station not worth what you'd save with weight?

ehh id rather not risk burning up a $300 fuel pump to save .05 mpg in my commute...or running outa gas cuz of my finicky fuel guages...

but someoen could do an experament to see how much it accualy drops MPG. like run 2 tanks only to half and the other 2 to full as can be. it would give a rough estimate....im gonna guess that it will be less than 1 mpg differance...

That's a good idea -- but there tends to be more accuracy with the higher number of gallons pumped (smaller fills are usually more optomistic).

Due the wide variance in pumps and the actual amount on a given day, SG data would potentially be more accurate.

A few people could try it and we could pool the results ???

RH77

I did that. It's buried some where if you want to do a search. With a 15 gallon tank I did several tanks at 4 gallons, this was with Casper(or you can look at the gaslog). FE actually went down a smidgen. That was with tank to tank variance so take it with a grain of salt. The car accelerates much better but it was a hassle to fill up every 3-4 days for no significant gain in FE. YMMV

yea cuz 50 lbs may seem like alot but in the big scheme the car weighs 3,000lbs so 50 lbs doesnt make much of a differance.... its like people who run around without a spare tire or jack just cuz it weights less than 50 lbs trying to save a tad(few drops) of gas....

I quit on the first click.

BUT I fill more slowly than I used to. I don't want any splashing, especially considering the fill hose's vapor recovery system is probably vacuuming up any splashed droplets. Also the expanding-fuel thing; I fill up before I park at work so it could expand and spill over if I supe-fill it.

About the spare tire - Ha! I drive ~60 mi. each way and I want a full size spare. Also all my tools. Four times in 7 years I've used the tool kit for real jobs that needed doing. Old cars, you know. OK, I better shut up. Getting waaay off topic.

Didn't know how to vote. I go wide open until I get the first click near my expected shutoff. Then a couple more clicks at about 1/4 of full speed.

I usually run to the 3rd or 4th click, which is when I can see the fuel right up near the top, about to spill on the ground!

Usually the second click or the nearest 25 cents, whichever is first. Since I have the overhead that takes care of the mileage for me, exact filling isn't as important as it once was. Dakotas have a nasty habit of bubbling up the filler and shutting off the hose if you don't have the nozzle set just right in the tube. Depending on the pump, usually the 3rd speed setting.

When it's really crowded at the station, I fill as slowly as possible so everyone waiting gets pissed off or at least thinks I'm real rich because it looks like I'm putting in hundreds of gallons of gas. Helps weed out the ones with the weak hearts.

CEL light can come on from 2 much fuel. the system is designed to reburn fuel vapors while driving. if sitting, temps can go up and make more vapors that are directed to the charcoal canister then out to atmosphere. If you over fill your tank on todays cars/trucks the fuel (not vapor) will expand and either dump extra fuel into the intake or saturate the charcoal canister and poss. spill out on the ground where it could ignite. You'll have to replace the canister/and valve if contaminated, and if it got sucked up to the intake it would run rough/stall/miss. I've haven't seen this overfill symptom yet, mainly its bad valves that stick open/close or spiderwebs that clog the vent that cause cel to turn on.

My gas log entries used to be all over the map (from 38-49mpg). I didn't think my driving habits varied that much, and the real clue it was how much gas I was filling up was that my best tanks were usually followed by my worst ones. I used to top the car off after the first click, but would smell as in the car for the first 15 minutes if I did.

I started filling at the same station (same pump if available) on the last four fill ups, setting the pump at the medium speed, and my mileage now varies from 43.10-44.22 which is pretty much my 90 day average.

2 clicks and call it quits for me. :thumbup:

Man you ARE crazy. I've seen the videos, don't try and deny it.:)