Over generous fuel pumps?

[srivett]

Has anybody here found such an animal?

I was down to half a tank today so I decided to fill up my car. The total? 23 litres for 535 km! I don't know what that is in MPG but I bet it's close to 100!!! Jeeze, I figured my expansion champer in the tank may have gobbled up an extra 6 litres on the last fill-up but that would still have given me way too good of mileage. The second thought was that the diesel was really foaming on me. But, it was atleast a minute between the time the nozzle shut off to the time that I finished whiping my windows/lights and pumped the last buck worth of fuel.

I can't figure out what happened. I checked my receipt from 4 days earlier and confirmed that I had reset my trip meter. I did pump my tires up from 30 to 40 psi but that can't be it... I always use the same pump too.

Steve

 

[eljefino]

I found one once that I bought gas, shut off the pump's lever thing, and drained the hose into my gas can. Minutes later, the hose was still draining at a trickle the diameter of a drinking straw, and the numbers weren't adding on the pump.

I'm not telling where it is.

 

[Shannow]

Steve,
there was an econocar sold down here in the late 80s that had a fuel tank venting problem.

The fuel pump would suck the tank in, and the mileage just got better and better, until there was only 20 or so litres volume in the tank.

 

[srivett]

Shannow,
Your thought on my fuel tank being smaller was correct. When I went out today I was already down to 3/4 of a tank so I swung by the gas station and was able to put in another 11 litres.

The vent may have been the problem as I washed my car earlier in the week. It was below -25C so the water froze to the car for the first bit, before the heat of the water could warm the car.

I've also gotten stuck a few times last week. My tank is plastic and it could have gotten squashed when I was hung up on the snow. It could have even gotten squashed just before I went to get gas as I backed up over a parking curb a few minutes earlier.

Cheers, Steve