How do you fill up your tank?

[Charon]

I am a bit curious to know what car has a fuel tank that small. Seems to me it would yield a mighty short fuel range.

Again, from curiosity. Suppose you fill the tank by the usual practice of putting the fuel nozzle into the filler pipe, and fill until the nozzle cuts off. How much more fuel do you get into the tank if you then top it off?

[Draigflag]

Question 1, a Fiat 126, yes a small range but designed for town use only. Would do over 64 MPG out of town though, so range wasn't too bad. It was basically a Motorbike with 4 wheels!

Question 2, My fuel tank is 35 litres on my current car, but some have reported getting up to 42 litres in. I actually ran dry once, cruised into the gas station with the engine off and only managed to get just over 40 litres in, so different pumps are calibrated differently.

[alvaro84]

I always try to fill to the brim. It's very easy with the two motorcycles, but harder with the YARDIS. Yet I like to see long tanks

I haven't yet met any problem because of this practice.

[trollbait]

Some report getting over a gallon in after the first click off.

[theholycow]

In my days of destroying evaporative emissions equipment I had no trouble getting two extra gallons in most vehicles.

[Draigflag]

That's insane, thats almost half the entire tank size of my car!!! Then again, in an American car, two gallons probably isnt that much from what ive read!

[alvaro84]

It's about 3-4 liters in my little Yaris, like one (US) gallon. Official tank capacity is 45l (11.9 US gallons).

Teresa (BMW F650CS) has less than 1 liter room after the nozzle cutoff, in a 15-liter tank.

I could never pour the official max amount in their tanks, not even when I pushed Teresa to the gas station empty. Umm... it might be possible for the YARDIS, but I never dared to run her empty.

[Charon]

I used to have an '86 Ford F150 pickup. It had, according to the Owner's Manual, two 19 US gallon tanks. Because of issues with the gauge, I usually ran it on the rear tank until empty, then switched tanks. I was never able to get as much as 18 gallons into either tank, even when the tank had been run dry.

I also used to have an '06 Kawasaki KLR650. It officially had a 6.1 US gallon tank. I don't recall what part of it was "reserve". When I ran it into reserve, I could never get more than a gallon less than the official capacity "above reserve" into it.

[Draigflag]

Two tanks both with 19 gallons! Thats a potential of over 3000 miles per fuel up with todays efficientcy!

[Cogeneration]

Originally Posted by MatrixDom

Filling up past the first click is bad for your car. The fuel systems needs space for vapors and you're preventing that by over-filling your car. You should always stop when the first click happens.

Originally Posted by trollbait

You risk damaging the evaporative system when you fill it completely up. Leaving space for expansion is also good to do during the summer.

How about checking the car's manual. Some will say to fill to the first or even second click. Whatever you decide to do, just keep it consistent.

On a gasser the above posters are correct. On a diesel which I have I top the tank off right up to the top of the filler neck. No evap system on a diesel so no charcoal canister to pollute and ruin.