Last Fill Up Ended on the Ground and All Over My Cars New Paint

I've had my Prius for 10K now and never had a tank over fill problem, but all the pumps that i've used worked properly and turned off as they should. I will keep an eye out for the over flow though..

 

Everything I own is for sale if the price is right. I would be willing to unload this 2008 Spectra Blue Package #6 Touring Edition with aftermarket Tinted Windows, Clear Bra and Paint Sealant, extended warranty [Platinum 7 year 100,000 mi.] and 518 miles on it for $27,950 + shipping of the vehicle to anywhere in the continental USA. PM me and let me know if you're interested.

Only 518 miles on it and you filled up 5 times??? I'd sell it just for the terrible gas mileage!!!

 

Sounds like "problem solved" for now at least, right? My first reaction when a car malfunctions is to take it in for repair, not to sue the manufacturer.

 

Sounds like an appropriate plan. It is certainly possible that there is a problem with SOME cars. Maybe they got some faulty parts. It would be interesting to know if cars that display this problem were all built around the same time or have some other thing in common.

Toyota has sold an awful lot of Prii with the same fuel system, most do not have this problem (the opposite in fact) so I really doubt there is a generic design flaw. They can't really issue a recall until they understand the problem.

It is very hard to find a problem that is not widely reported because there just isn't enough data. If they take your fuel system apart, they might be able to find some part that is not working properly and then check others with some common build history for the same thing. If they find something concrete, I am sure they will issue a recall.

 

I had the over flow problem on my 2nd fill up, so I am at a 50% overflowing percentage. So me and the guy with 0% now average out at 25%.

Even though this happened to me, the thought never crossed my mine to complain. I figured it was just "one of those things" until I saw the thread here. Also, this forum is a very small sampling of the millions of Prius owners in the world. Most users on this board are VERY into their cars, and pay more attention to everything about their cars, including filling up.

Perhaps this is a bigger issue, perhaps not. I can in my twenty years of pumping gas, I have only seen gas drizzle out of the tank maybe one other time. For it two happen on my 2nd pumping experience is a bit odd.

Since it was raining when it happened to me, I figured the rain would clean the gas off the paint, and that was probably what made me not so worried about damage to the paint, on my less then one month old $27,000 car that was oozing gas out of it.

Only time will tell if there is a minor design flaw in the filling system of our cars. Oh yeah, I have 08 purchased in California if that helps for data collection.

Steve

 

Yeah, what he said.
:tea: :ranger:

 

Happened to me for the first time with any car, about a month and a half ago -- just around the one year mark in Prius ownership (about 16k miles). Was in upstate NY, pumping my own gas, and set the pump to the lowest auto-fill setting. Watched the reading go near 11 gallons and got alarmed since I started with two pips, which I assumed was something like 2 gallons. So I took the nozzle out, and within five seconds there was a burbling noise and gasoline started pouring out of the car. Having read all the dire warnings about gas overflow and fuel system damage ... I freaked out. But everything seems to be okay as far as I can tell -- no warning lights, strange drops in mpg, etc.

 

Hi Guys;
New forum user as of today and new Prius owner as of this January. One of my 1st questions was going to be about a gass tank overflow problem. My 1st three tanks were OK but my fourth overflowed. Iheard a suspicious gurgle in the pipe and turned off the automatic fill but still lost about a litre of gass in manual mode.

I've been around long enough to own 32 cars and this is the first time I have had this problem. The number of occurances, from reading your thread, are disportunately high. I have not mentioned the problem to my dealer yet as I had just had the car undercoated from a third party. I wanted to try another couple of fills to see if the problem reoccured, thinking that it could be related to the undrcoating. Now I don't think it has anything to do with the undecoating.

Other than that the car is great.

Keep us posted on your progress with Toyota. I did notice that all of the Prius cars that had this problem were 2007 or 2008?! May help.

Regards;
JimM

 

there are a few pump stations around me that i can't use. they are too problematic. shell is usually always one of them.

most of my problems is that the prius won't fill. the system keeps clicking off so i can't get any gas. I've always watched my prius pretty closely when filling. plus.. i very rarely fill it all the way up anymore.

use a different pump. and stop whining.. j/k... or am i?

 

I'm curious to hear what the dealership is able to do for you. Hopefully it's some bad part that they're able to fix.

 

You what?!? YOU walked away from a pump while it was filling your car? Were you using your cell phone while smoking and rubbing your bare socks on carpet and touching people?

Seriously, walking away from a pump is really stupid. You probably deserved your prospective paint damage.

 

Perhaps we should refrain from name calling and stay with the subject at hand. I have an 05 with 80k miles on it. who knows how many fillups 90 , 100 , 200 ? who knows. i have never had a backfart when filling and almost always i fill at the highest speed (time is Money) and i almost always fill more after the click off. Sometimes i just round up to the nearest buck, sometimes ive put a buck or even more into it. No problems other than the usuall cant put enough gas in it syndrome. Today i filled up with the last pip blinking and it only took 7.7 gal. It was 25 F outside.

 

I've never heard of this as being a "highly reported incident" until now. Just because YOU are one Prius owner w/this alleged problem doesn't warrant a class action suit. The US is a strange place w/so much litigation always going on.

 

rochester,

Just to explain my (and perhaps others') resistance to everything you're saying: You come across as rather sue-happy. "There's a problem with my car, so I'm going to sue Toyota." Whether that's actually the case or not is irrelevant; perception's winning here.

The other part, of course, is that I really like Toyota cars. Frivolous lawsuits increase the cost of those cars, so your lawsuit may well cost me money in a few years.

Toyota is a very reliable brand and a very solid company. They've issued recalls for many different things in the past. I have no reason to believe that they will NOT issue a recall for the gas tank issue once they can pin it down to a specific lot of cars, a specific model year, or something else.

I remain interested in hearing what the dealer will do for you. It's just that most people seem to feel it's silly to sue the manufacturer because of this problem.

 

That is pretty uncalled for.

I routinely walk away from the pump handle while it pumps to clean all the salt crude off my lights. I don't go into the convenience store to buy stuff so if something did go wrong I am close by, but not necessarily hand on the pump handle close. Heck, back when I was a pup and gas station attendants put the gas in, they would clean the windows and check the oil while the gas was 'self pumping'. I have NEVER in my life had a pump not shut off. A bad pump shutoff or bad part in the fuel system of the car IS a rare thing.

You might also note that Rochester said the Toyota Tech had the same thing happen. Not specified if he/she was holding the pump handle or using the lock but they were standing right there watching.

Of course, many stations have taken the handle locks off so you have to hold it if you want gas.

 

Hi Rochesteruser;
From your earlier post re the District Mgr from Toyota calling - its good to know the squeaky weel principle is alive and well. Here is some more griss for the mill. -
On this thread there are six different users that have had a problem with gas overflowing the tank. Here's where it gets even more interesting.

The three people with 2008 Prius had a problem with no shut off at all on the pump. In addition to your problem mine occured on the fourth fill and "Steveholtam" had his on the second fill.
The remaining three users had 2007 models and all had what was referred to as the BGT (Barfing Gas Tank). There is a good thread under troubleshooting that has many more entries with this problem. For your reference those users are "abq rfr", "dogfriend" and "onree".
Waiting to hear what Toyota has to offer you. I agree this is a serious problem. The ESSO station owner in my case directed cars to another island and washed down the gas spill. When I told him how it happened he said he has never had that problem on that pump.

Regards Jim.