I've had my Prius IV for a month or so now. One weird thing I've noticed when I'm filling it up with gas...the fuel filler neck (the gas cap screws onto) is loose...it almost feels unattached. Is this normal? Sorry if this has come up before, but I did a search on Fuel Filler Neck and only came up with 2nd Generation TSBs. -Jay
Me too... I'm always worried that the whole thing will fall apart when filling the tank and I'll have gas going all over the place!
I'd say the filler neck is "flexible," rather than "loose." The neck is also not totally metal. This is by design. There's a weight consideration, since a heavy, rigid, totally metal filler neck would be heavier, and require sturdy metal brackets to connect to the filler door housing. I was surprised, when the filler neck on my old Honda Prelude corroded, the new part was heavy, about 10-12 pounds! And that brings up another point: the Prius's neck will not be likely to corrode since it isn't all metal! It's interesting to see how Toyota designers fit the filler tube into the Prius. There isn't much room for it!
My II has less than 5,000 miles and the filler neck is rock solid. If I press real hard I can feel very slight "give" as if it has a rubber shock mount, but nothing remotely loose.
I think we're arguing semantics here. The neck on my 2010 Prius III definitely moves around a lot more than anything I've seen on other vehicles. You could call it loose, though I understand why some people wouldn't, since I think it has a negative connotation and implies that it's not by design. One thing I have noticed is that because of this flexibility, the pump handle tends to rest much closer to horizontal than I'm used to. I've noticed that this caused a lot of pumps to automatically shut off while filling, which can get REALLY annoying. Anyone else noticed this?
