I just moved to a new city and I’ve been finding that filling my car with gas at the pumps here (regardless of which brand of gas station) is a little trickier/more-finicky than I’m used to. I’m wondering if anyone can explain to me what nuance I’m experiencing.
In the past, when I place a nozzle in my car and hold the trigger, it’s pretty easy to fill the tank until there is no more room at which point it ‘clicks’ and I’m done.
In this new city I’m finding it’s necessary to apply downward pressure to the entire contraption and hold it ‘just so’ in order to keep the gas coming out and if I fail to apply pressure in just the right way then it ‘clicks’ prematurely even if only a tiny amount of gas has been put in.
The one difference I’ve seen is that unlike older nozzles that have metal at the end, the ones in this city have plastic contraption at the end that presumably serves so weird purpose but also makes the whole system finicky.
One thing I can say is that those plastic things have been required in California for many years. They create an airtight seal around the filler pipe so fumes can’t escape. Part of our state’s anti-pollution regulations. I think if the seal is broken the pump automatically stops. That might be what you’re experiencing.
Aha! I think we might be on to something. Additional googling suggests these might be “ Vapor Recovery Nozzles” that capture gas vapor and put it back underground.
I don’t believe we had these in my country which might explain the confusion.
My Wife had a similar problem with her '03 Grand Jeep Cherokee.
It was actually a problem with the gas tank itself. Some vapor return thing or something in the filing neck to the tank on the car. I’m sorry I don’t recall exactly what it was.
But, she could only put in about 50 cents of gas at a time. She had to baby sit it at the pump.
Besides the vapor recovery machinery, a plastic nozzle-end would prevent static electricity discharge at the fill hole. It doesn’t happen often, but static sparks in fueling occasionally cause fires.
Further reading indicates part of the vapor recovery system is in my car too, I wonder if there could be an issue that’s causing the whole system to be hypersensitive and making it hard to fill up?
I always had a hard time pumping gas into my Jeep Wranglers, depending on the gas station. I had to pump slowly and tilt the nozzle if getting gas at a Sunoco station; but had no issues at Mobil stations.
Needless to say, I stuck with Mobil.
EDIT: I think there was a known issue with Wranglers. Something to with the vapors
Right, most cars in the street have their own vapor recovery systems since decades ago. Even if as in my two most recent states of residence (PR and VA) you don’t have mandated recovery nozzles at the pump, a malfunction in the car’s system can create a pressure buildup that prevents the tank from being filled (the tank doesn’t vent directly into the atmosphere, but through the system, so if the system gets plugged up or constrained, you become unable to displace the air from the space into which the fuel would be going). I believe the recovery nozzles can be more sensitive about back pressure or about how good a seal you make around the filler tube.
Yes, those new nozzles. I remember going to a station that I had been going to for years, which had been recently ‘modrnized’, including replacing all the pumps with those nozzles. The first time I used them, I couldn’t get it to turn on at all. Had to get the attendant there, who explained that you had to “push it in real hard to get it to start. And if it stops, it’s worked loose, and just push it in again and it will restate”. I felt pretty foolish, but he said he had been explaining it all day long.
And I noticed that the 24 pumps, which normally had only a single attendant, now had 3 or 4 of them working. All spending most of their time explaining this. (They had put up hand-written signs explaining this, but the management (who had purchased those new pumps) made the attendants take the signs down.) It slowed fueling down enough that cars were leaving because the waiting line was too long and moving too slow.
The jeep with a problem had a blockage ? Often there are anti-theft (can’t get a hose in to syphon ) devices in the filler tubes so maybe they can get blocked easily ?
But if its just the change in nozzle… the idea is to line the nozzle up with the bend in the filler tube so that the jet of fluid is aimed better down past the bend, or at least, better INTO the bend, so as to reduce splashing around and creating back pressure. Trying to jam the nozzle down deeper might not be right, as that can drive the end of the nozzle to aiming at the wall of the filler tube instead of the flow glancing off the wall and taking the bend… So you might be holding the nozzle just so that the nozzle is only in about half way, not the “just shove it in”. This may be toward making the nozzle work better, at reducing vapour loss and splash backs, for small vehicles with narrow filler tubes… at the cost of the people with larger filler tubes having to fiddle to get it pumping smoothly.