6 replies to this topic

[i_am_neg]

Hi Everyone,

Today I filled up my mini for the first time (Austin Mini, 1982 998c). There was about just over half a tank of petrol inside when I bought the car off its previous owner. So upon needing petrol this evening I begin filling up, with the petrol pump nozzle fully inserted. After a short while it then clicks off and I pay for the fuel. When I get back to the car, I find that the petrol gauge is not showing a full tank. Even though the pump had clicked off to say it had filled up to the max. Might this be because the petrol pump nozzle was fully inserted into the mini's petrol tank canal? Maybe the nozzle was too long for this old mini and therefore reached furthur into the canal/tank or detected petrol earlier than it would on a modern car? I'm not sure? Any ideas? Or is it a fault with the gauge?

[SimonWicklow]

turn the nozzle upside down when filling up, it allows it to fill up to the top, it clicked off because the nozzle points down in the tank so it thinks its full.

[The Otter]

If you have the nozzle all the way in (to the rubber seal thingy on most petrol pump nozzles) then you will never get a full tank, as you have experienced. This is because, as you suggested, the neck on the tank is so short that if you insert the pump all the way then it's going in to the actual fuel tank a fair way, meaning that when it clicks you've still got a lot of space left to fill above where it 'clicked'. What I do when I fill up is to have the pump nozzle where I can see the petrol coming out and in to the tank (only having a few inches of the nozzle in the neck), and then when you can see the fuel nearing the top of the tank I stop the pump, as I've also heard that when the pump 'clicks' it sucks back a little bit of fuel you've already paid for. Mind you, I'm sure this isn't 100% safe and can cause splashing of fuel and excessive fumes to come out, but I'll wait for some health and safety bods to talk about those points

[jaydee]

Its a mini thing, even at the petrol station they require different treatment..
Its his first post though, so i guess hes new to the mini owning and he doesnt have experience of filling up and the dreaded fuel gauges.
Imagine if you had an old cooper s.. oh i filled up only one tank!

[i_am_neg]

Cheers guys. Just trying to get as much in there as possible. I'll give your suggestions a go. :)

[The Principal]

have a close look at the petrol pump filler nozzle and your see a small hole adjacent to the main filler pipe, this is the cut off mechanism to prevent over filling and dangerous fuel spillages onto the forecourt, basically don't push the fuel filler nozzle too far into the tank to get a full load

[dklawson]

Take a flashlight and look through the filler neck to see how much fuel is really in the tank.

You do not want the gas all the way up to the filler neck, not necessarily even to the bottom of the filler neck. Take a look in the tank and report back approximately where you think the fuel level is. Once we know that we can comment about whether you stopped filling prematurely or if the gas gauge is reading low.