Ok, I've been "investigating" ways to improve my fuel economy and one way is to fill up early morning and to do so very slowly. Well, that's what I did this morning, barely squeezing the nozzle. It filled....and filled....and filled. Note that my low fuel light was NOT on so I had over 6 L left in my 40 L tank. Well, I put 36 L in and NO click! I was getting worried so just stopped fueling. How much gas could I have gotten in there? Having had a clogged fuel neck filter on my Mazda3, I don't want to overfill yet the darn thing wouldn't stop!

 

I would say you're safe since the pump didn't stop on its own. It's not like you're topping it off. My parents always top off to round off the price to the nearest dollar or so. So far no problems, but maybe I should remind them to avoid doing that.

 

Cost me over $300 to have my fuel filler neck filter replaced on my Mazda3! Not a cheap fix for overfilling so you can be sure that I'm VERY careful now (though it was my unknowing sister's fault last time).

It's just that I was barely squeezing the nozzle and so the fill up was super slow, then I hit 36 L and it was still going! Doesn't seem right, does it???? Had more than 6 L left in my tank's whose capacity (in Canada) is 40 L. How can this be????

 

Slow filling may delay the cutoff click.

You may want to squeeze the trigger fully when approaching full.

 

Hmm...good idea! Now of course my fuel mileage calculation is totally screwed up since I managed to get 36 L in. I got 8.4 L/100 km (28 US MPG) which is totally off. My average is 6.5 L/100 km (36 US MPG).

 

Btw, I've never heard that overfilling could block a filler neck. I've often filled cars to the brim without issues.

 

Neither did I until it happened to me with my Mazda3! Not a cheap repair either so you can be sure that I'm listening for that first click at the pump and pulling out the nozzle immediately....

 

How exactly does it block it? It's liquid after all.

 

Hey, I have no idea of the specifics, I just know that it happened on my Mazda3 after my sister overfilled it. It was in January so bitterly cold out too, which may have had something to do with it. I ALWAYS remove the nozzle after the 1st click, even before this happened. Now I'm even more vigilant after that repair...

 

Generally, I fill until the nozzle cuts off, wait a few seconds and then squeeze again until it cuts off. I never overfilled on my old Fit that way. It's pretty close to the same level every time (I guess) since my milage never varied that much from fill up to fill up. It did vary from summer to winter though.

 

Was it between -120 to -150c? Gasoline "freezes" in there somewhere. Supposedly it just turns "gummy". It never gets that cold here. Maybe that's what happened.

 

Hmmm....did you mean -12 degrees Celcius to -15? If so, yup, it was even colder than that. January is our coldest month up here in Sudbury. The Service Manager at Mazda did say that my fuel filler neck filter was all clogged up, so it sounds like your "gummy" analysis...

 

It gets cold in Canada but not THAT cold!

 

Antarctica doesn't even get that cold... Coldest I've ever seen in my part of the world is around -45 Celcius (-49 Fahrenheit).

 

Nope, -120 to -150. I was just joking.

It sound more like something got into a filter in the filler neck, like some kind of contaminants. I have never had a car with a filter in the filler.

 

Oh, ok. I had my "fuel filler neck filter" clog up due to overfilling/cold outside temps...

 

I suspect that it wasn't caused by cold or overfilling but that the gas was contaminated.

 

Hmmm....possible since this was a small service station. My '09 Fit is ONLY getting Tier One gas from Shell or Petro-Canada, period. No guarantees something similar won't happen, but I do feel better with these brands...

 

I like Ultramar.

And I always go to the same pump if I'm not on long trip.

 

We don't have that in Sudbury. Also heard that Sunoco is good (also not in Sudbury). We have: Shell, Esso, Petro-Canada, and Pioneer.