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Old 12-08-2008, 08:52 PM   #1
swankboy
Registered User
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Pacific, WA
Posts: 3
Can't fill fuel tank with pumped gas, only from a can

2001 Boxster 2.7L 45k miles, 5 speed manual>

Tonight is the first time I tried to fill my gas tank since getting my car back from being repaired from an accident. The external cosmetic damage to the car overall wasn't great, but there was a lot of damage underneath from rebar set into the ground that held a wooden snow fence in place. There was a lot of fuel line and coolant line repair among other things. There was no damage to the car on the side the fuel filler is on nor, to my knowledge, any damage to the gas tank itself or filler tube.

Anyway, I was low on gas leaving work so I stopped to fill up with about an 1/8 of a tank left (I had to drive 40 miles to get home). I start to fill it and the pump clicks off. I try again and it clicks off again. I pull the nozzle back and gas starts to gush out. Okay. So I try again, but with the pump at its lowest fill rate and it still does it. So, I drove for awhile until I got to another station where I know I've filled up before with no problem. Same issue.

So I drove all the way home (barely). First thing I did was find some tubing. I found some 5/8" thick walled tube about 3' long. I pushed it down into the filler and it went where I could feel it working it's way into the tank. So it wasn't obstructed as far as I could tell, so I grabbed the 2 gallon gas can I have in the garage, took my other car and filled it. I was able to fill the tank in my Boxster with it. I made another trip and filled it again with the can. Now I have about 1/3 of a tank.

So I can fill the tank with a gas can, but not from a pump. My guess is that air is getting trapped and has nowhere to go when attempting to fill with pump gas. Is there a breather that's blocked or not open, or something else that didn't get reset or otherwise screwed up? Ideas?

Tomorrow I plan to call the place that did the work obviously, but hoping there's an easy solution I don't know about that I can fix tonight.
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