Putting petrol in, taking forever...

Emlyn_Dewar · 16 Mar 2006 at 09:03

I was getting a lift into uni by my Mum today and on the way we had to stop for petrol. She seemed to think this was the worst thing ever and that the car was evil, obviously I dismissed this, then we got to the petrol station...
The car is a P reg BMW 323, it is absolutely shocking for filling up, was just constant stop/start or really slow flow to fill up, in the end we gave up at £13 (how fitting!) This was after about 5 minutes of messing about with different obscure angles/positions...
My Dad has complained about this car for being an effort to fill up aswell and I can finally see why.

What is it that causes this problem and is there an easy way to fix it?

Any help or advice appreciated!

merlin · 16 Mar 2006 at 09:05

Emlyn_Dewar · 16 Mar 2006 at 09:10

lol, that's not the kind of advice I wanted!

SB118 · 16 Mar 2006 at 09:11

Try a different station, some places have the cutoff on the pumps set to be stupidly sensitive.

happytechie · 16 Mar 2006 at 09:12

try turning the nozzle 90 degrees once it's in the filler pipe.

HT

Scottland · 16 Mar 2006 at 09:14

Maybe it's already full, and the fuel gague is broke?

Steve · 16 Mar 2006 at 09:29

another vote for changing nozzel angle,

some pumps I have ine upsidedown

webmonkeyuk · 16 Mar 2006 at 11:10

my micra is the same, cant open the nozzle fully as it just clicks off so it takes ages to fill. ive tryed turning it to different angles but its just the same, maye try different pumps as it works better on some than others for me :rolleyes:

Big Spender · 16 Mar 2006 at 11:20

webmonkeyuk said:
my micra is the same, cant open the nozzle fully as it just clicks off so it takes ages to fill. ive tryed turning it to different angles but its just the same, maye try different pumps as it works better on some than others for me

that makes 2 of us

Redrum · 16 Mar 2006 at 11:23

I sometimes have to not put the pump all the way in, just have the end poking in enough for the fuel to go in the tank.

lordrobs · 16 Mar 2006 at 11:27

Kind of related but I find the new Shell pumps are sooo slow. Even at full whack I get cramp in my hand before my car is full. On the plus side when it says its full it really is full as opposed to being able to trickle another couple of quid in as with some pumps.

There was a dodgy pump at my local Total and the only way I could get it to dish out its go go juice was to push the nozzle in just far enough to push open the little flap at the to of the filler neck and just keep an eye on it to make sure it didn't overflow.

dun · 16 Mar 2006 at 11:52

happytechie said:
try turning the nozzle 90 degrees once it's in the filler pipe.

HT

As above, i have to do this quite abit

jpmonkey69 · 16 Mar 2006 at 14:08

happytechie said:
try turning the nozzle 90 degrees once it's in the filler pipe.

HT

On my rover 620ti, whenever I go to a shell garage, I have to do the rotate nozzle so it's pointing 90 degrees to the right.

K.C. Leblanc · 16 Mar 2006 at 16:08

I have trouble filling my Xantia at one of my local garages*, fine at the other one in town though.

* Don't think the owner has much business sense, he has an L Reg Golf on the front for £2295 :eek:

.

Rilot · 16 Mar 2006 at 16:11

E32 7-Series is the same. Only way to get fuel in it is to turn the pump upside down.

On the subject of filling up. Why is it that all pumps in this country have the clip that keeps the pump running removed?
With the auto cut-off and a 90 litre tank, it would be nice to sit in the car while it fills itself up.

TripleT · 16 Mar 2006 at 17:58

Just go to a different petrol station

I usually find cheapo stations like this.

I hate the amount of time it take for the dial to register before you can start pumping, takes ages sometimes :/

Tomsk · 16 Mar 2006 at 18:04

Rilot said:
E32 7-Series is the same. Only way to get fuel in it is to turn the pump upside down.

On the subject of filling up. Why is it that all pumps in this country have the clip that keeps the pump running removed?
With the auto cut-off and a 90 litre tank, it would be nice to sit in the car while it fills itself up.

When I had my Jags, I added a large safety pin to my keyring. When filling up the safety pin was located in a hole at the back of the handle (as indicated in the picture) and there was a spring loaded lever which could be pulled back to lock the handle.

Oracle · 16 Mar 2006 at 21:14

My old E36 I used to have the pump handle in upside down! How strange!

Puzzled · 16 Mar 2006 at 21:35

My local Tesco petrol station is like that, I just squeeze the lever gently that way it goes in (Slowly!) instead of stopping all the time.

I put it down to crappy pumps.