Sorry if this has been mentioned before, I did search before posting.

Fuel down to about a quarter of a tank so I thought I would fill it up and compare how long a tank full would compare to my last car. First the garage fuel pump kept stopping like the tank was full,I could not find the sweet spot so took ages to fill. Second when I picked up my car I was told it had £25 of diesel just over half a tank. After I had put £35 in it sounded as though the tank was full, and thought that about right with the amount of fuel left in the car.. Aprox £50. When I checked it only had three quarters of a tank.

I noticed the pump nozzle was a tight fit unlike any other car I've owned. Has anybody else come across this, or any ideas?

My vRS TDI takes about £60ish quid but diesel costs more than petrol so it depends on your fuel, plus I tend to use "v power" etc.  I haven't noticed any problem filling the car with the pump stopping all the time.

 

Regarding the "tight fit" of the nossle, it's not because the cars are designed not to take the wrong fuel?

Diesel fuel nozzles and Petrol Fuel nozzles are different sizes, I think that petrol ones are thinner than diesel ones.  Unless your car has been fitted with a petrol filler pipe instead of a diesel one?

Mine does take a bit of playing with to get the "sweet spot" when filling, but once jiggled into the right angle its OK

The tightness is due to the design to minimise risk of wrong fuelling I assumed. 

My understanding was that historically the difference in nozzle sizes meant you couldn't fill a petrol car with diesel, but unfortunately you could fill a diesel with petrol? But recently some manufacturers have introduced some technology to prevent misfuelling of diesel vehicles. I believe Ford have - has Skoda also done this on the Octy3?

 

I used to run a diesel Octavia2 and fitted it with a third party misfuelling device because it was the first diesel I had ever owned and I'm very absent minded. But I had to remove it because it proved impossible to fill the tank -  the cut out in the nozzle kept triggering and it proved almost impossible to fill the tank and/or fill it quickly. So I removed it, but even without it I still experienced the same problems with filling up at certain garages and had to jiggle the nozzle around a lot. My local Sainsbury was OK but my local Tesco pumps were a nightmare. So I stopped using Tesco.  I began to suspect that the sensitivity of the fuel pump to prevent spillage can vary significantly between garages and/or individual pumps.

 

So having to jiggle the nozzle around in order to fill up with diesel was a regular experience for me.     

Edited 15 June, 201411 yr by Minimoke

No problems filling up...  normally get about 43 litres in when filling up on the 1/4 tank mark. I found the nozzle worked best when the trigger was at around the 8 o'clock position (if that makes sense). I normally let it click off once wait a few seconds then squeeze again until it clicks again. I believe it does have a built in misfuelling device.

The octavia diesel does have a misfeuling device fitted to prevent filling with petrol.

I usually let it go down to a ¼ tank before refuelling & when I do refuel, I usually hold the nozzle just away from the metal bit in the filler and squeeze the trigger and let it go and I usually find it will take £60 worth of Nitro+, Momentum 99 or Super UL and I always brim it. 

 

That way I usually get around 100-120 miles before the needle starts to move again.

 

On a tankful of Momentum 99 at the moment, as I filled it up in Minehead and I still have 55% tank despite doing around 220 miles, but the majority of that was done on the A39, B3190, B3224*, A358, A303/M3/A31/A3, A25 & A247/8, doing between 60 & 75 mph for most of it.

 

* A cracking bit of road to avoid the snarl ups on the A39! 

No problems filling up...  normally get about 43 litres in when filling up on the 1/4 tank mark. I found the nozzle worked best when the trigger was at around the 8 o'clock position (if that makes sense). I normally let it click off once wait a few seconds then squeeze again until it clicks again. I believe it does have a built in misfuelling device.

Wow - I don't get more than 48l in when the it is completely empty and registering 0 miles range (plus the 20 miles i have driven whilst on zero!)

The max I've ever put in is 45L, apart from first fill up cos the dealers were so tight ! Only ever seen the fuel light come on once.

Yep, my Tdi has a tight fit issue too, you have to line the pump nozzle up just right. Getting the hang of it now.

The art with diesel is to fill it gently, because if you fill it quickly all you get is froth & loads of air in the tank, so fill it gently you won't get so much froth, it will actually fill a little quicker and because you're not waiting for the air to escape (burp!), you should (in theory) get a little more in and always brim it. 

Never had any trouble with mine, just put the nozzle in and hold the trigger, fills right up straight away.

Wow - I don't get more than 48l in when the it is completely empty and registering 0 miles range (plus the 20 miles i have driven whilst on zero!)

Wow! Even thats a lot. Although the 20 extra miles may explain that!

Last time i filled it up on zero i only got 43 litres in, and that was (accidentally) to the extreme top.

Interesting reply's, thanks. I will try another garage next time.

Checked my guage today.. I normally fill up at 1/8 tank left..not 1/4... my mistook..sorry :(

Checked my guage today.. I normally fill up at 1/8 tank left..not 1/4... my mistook..sorry :(

About the same as mine then - just over a gallon left plus the gallon reserve when you fill up.

Glad I have the petrol version of the vRS. I don't have this problem ;-)

As I have the petrol version of the vRS, I just give it full blast initially, then once the nozzle clicks out, I then wait a few seconds and then keep filling up with a moderate/gentle flow until the petrol appears at the neck, waits a few more seconds for it to disappear again and then keep it on gently until absolutely full.

Seems there is some variation on whether people fill up to the neck or not (i.e. you can actually *see* the fuel sitting in the neck of the tank after filling). I always used to do this on my old Yaris just to make the most of the cheap fuel and to reliably calculate fuel economy. But I have since heard that it is a bad idea, possibly because it can contaminate the charcoal filter with liquid fuel. OTOH, this filter should be above the neck and therefore only get contaminated if you go fast round corners with a very full tank...

 

Do you think whether this is a bad idea or not is vehicle specific? Who does what? How else can you work out the genuine economy of your car?

In my opinion the clue is not to put the nozzle all the way in. Here in norway theres a little impress a bit from the tip of the nozzle. If you line this impress up with the rim of the filler the fuel will run without problems

Alsomme

Edited 17 June, 201411 yr by Alsomme

Just to update I filled up again today no problems, same garage different pump. Car was almost in the red, took £65.50, so it has a bigger tank than my '04 Volvo S40 had.

Just to update I filled up again today no problems, same garage different pump. Car was almost in the red, took £65.50, so it has a bigger tank than my '04 Volvo S40 had.

 

55litre in the 4x4.

Seems there is some variation on whether people fill up to the neck or not (i.e. you can actually *see* the fuel sitting in the neck of the tank after filling). I always used to do this on my old Yaris just to make the most of the cheap fuel and to reliably calculate fuel economy. But I have since heard that it is a bad idea, possibly because it can contaminate the charcoal filter with liquid fuel. OTOH, this filter should be above the neck and therefore only get contaminated if you go fast round corners with a very full tank...

 

Do you think whether this is a bad idea or not is vehicle specific? Who does what? How else can you work out the genuine economy of your car?

I put the nozzle in as far as it will go, fill until it stops, then top up to the next full litre, gotta maximise those points, I never keep going after that, as I ride bikes and spilt diesel is a real problem, so I never want to be a culprit as I have been a victim..