Car and fuel question

[hawkida]

So I have filled up my car several times now, they have a tendency to drink petrol. I'd had no problems the first few times. Then, a couple of weeks back I had a few passengers and when I tried to fill the car would take a small amount of fuel before the pump cut out as though the tank was full. It did this repeatedly, taking about 70p - £2 of fuel at a time. Eventually, when the cost was what I expected to spend, I stopped. I had tried several different angles of pushing the hose's nose into the fuel tank, don't think I was doing anything different. I wondered if the car might be at a weird "laden" angle with all the passengers and asked them to get out, to no avail. So I put it down to a dodgy pump.

Today I just went and fuelled up at that same station, but a totally different pump and it's doing exactly the same thing. So, either my car's got something weirdly wrong with it, or I'm doing something stupid. My bet's on the latter. Any clues what it might be, anyone?

Comments

[del-c.livejournal.com]

No, I bet it's the station. There's one station in Reading that has hair-trigger fuel cutoffs, and all the pump handles in that station do it. I just have to hold the trigger with infinite delicacy to keep it at the angle that neither stops because I've released the trigger, nor stops because I've pulled the trigger too hard and frightened the pump.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

what they all said.

I look at the fuel gauge before filling, and most petrol tanks are 50 or 60 litres, so if there's a half tank of fuel, I can get at least 25 litres in there ... if it's nearly empty, I can get around 50 in there (and actually, a 50 litre tank will probably take 55 litres if you try really hard).

What they said about using less pressure (happens to me all the time, if I try filling at full speed, the air rushing out of the tank triggers the back pressure sensor and stops the pump ... so I just have to fill slightly slower so it doesn't cut out)

[meus-profiteor.livejournal.com]

"...most petrol tanks are 50 or 60 litres..."
I think you'll find that petrol tanks vary wildly from 30-40 litres right up to multiple, 100+ litre tanks depending on the make of the vehicle, the engine size, how economical, the position of the stars and moon when it was designed, the designers favourite colour, etc.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

A Ford Ka has a 40litre tank, Peugeot 106 45litres ... most of the cars I've driven have been between 40 and 60 litres.

But then I've mostly driven larger cars.

The car I have outside at the moment has something like a 90 litre petrol tank and a 100litre LPG tank :-) It's a LPG conversion Jaguar XJ6

I should have said "most petrol tanks (in cars hawkida is likely to drive) are 40-60 litres" probably.

Thanks.

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

It's a Rover 111. I think it has a 40 litre tank, it may be smaller.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

You're right. Different websites have values from 33-40litres for a Rover 114

e.g. this site (http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=41918) has two people discussing whether it's 36 or 33 litres.

I've never owned a car that size (though I've had them as company cars and loan cars while mine was being repaired) ...

... and obviously they tend to get far better petrol mileage than my big "tanks" do, and park in much smaller spaces.