Gas Tank Overflow and Gauge Issues
 

Need some help on an issue that just came up and I am wondering if anyone else has ran into this issue as well.

I went to top up my gas the other day, started driving and noticed that the gauge didn't move to "full" after filling it right to the top. So drove her for a bit and the gauge went down so I stopped to fill up again (to the point of overflowing) and the gauge still didn't go up to "full".

This was on the way to the track so I threw her around the track to see if it was maybe a float issue and the gauge ended up moving up to the full line, but now was pushing the gas out of the tank and overflowing during fill up.

The gas pump will stop, noticing that the tank is full but it just keep pushing the gas right out the top. Talked to a couple fellow Twins about their issues with the fuel sending unit but took her to Toyota who is thinking it might be a venting issue with the tank. They don't know if it is from the fuel pump, the gas tank itself, the sending unit and showed me all of the different places they will need to disconnect and get me to fill up before figuring out the problem.

So before allowing Toyota to go crazy ripping my car apart (or just live with potential overflow issues), has anyone else had this problem and fixed it?

Thanks everyone and sorry for the long post!

There were a few 13s that had a problem with the filler tube collapsing.


Give this a read. Sounds like the exact same issue.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74249

Thanks for the quick reply! So many weird little issues everyone is having and so many different problems (clogging, collapsing). I guess I just have to open everything up and start looking around.

I've had this exact problem when my BRZ was new. I've learned since to only fill-up when the fuel gauge hits half-way point or lower and no issues since.

When my family drove Hondas during the 90's, filling up when the fuel gauge hasn't gone lower than 50% would render the needle inaccurate, hence we only filled up when it was close to empty.

Your solution now is to drive until the tank is close to empty, and then fill it up again. I don't press the trigger all the way (slower fill rate) and I stop once it clicks.

^^+1^^ I don't understand why but this is the solution. Just don't top off. System is working as designed.

Interesting. I wonder why it would be fine for 3 years and then suddenly this starts to happen one day. My plan was just not to fill her right up to the top anymore and just deal with not always having a full tank. Going to try this now.

Yea that's really weird and it happened to me when my car was like 2 weeks old. I was gonna take it to the dealer to have them check the gas tank vent tube to make sure it wasn't clogged, but then the problem went away once I did what I mentioned on my previous post. :iono:

I had the exact same thing happen to me on my way to cscs, Stopped in town before heading to the track to top it up and drove away thinking the gas pump was wrong, pulled over again and was only able to get .90 cents in.
My guess is to do with filling it up when there is only a small amount gone

@KPDoubleX it's a sensor / programming thing. It won't register any fill ups beyond 3/4 full or somewhere around there. Just don't top up before then if you want it to read accurately.

The guys that are experiencing these issues. are you all 2013 models? I have a 2013 model and a few months ago after i went for the valve spring recall this started happening. car would get to the1/4 tank and would just go limp. engine light would come on and then i would need to switch on and off about 5 times before it would go normal. open up fuel cap and then goes normal. put fuel in. when the level is above 1/4 tank i dont have the issue. only below.

I also have the issue where the needle doesnt move.

I have a 2013 and just started experiencing the issue. I was at about a half a tank but decided to top off with E85 while I was in a location where it's sold, but my needle didn't go back to the top. It'll go down a little from driving but it never went back up. I was thinking the E85 could be causing problems with the stock pump, but I'm not sure.

I'm going to check the fuses to be safe and open the gas cap to see if getting some air in there may do a magical trick, but I'm open to any suggestions before I haul it to a shop to test down.

Update: I ran the tank down to a 1/4 and then filled it back up, but stopped when it clicked. The hand rose back up as normal. I've also run another tank out and filled it back up and stopped it at the first click. Maybe it was an EVAP problem?

My 2013 does this once in a while. Since the volume is gas I put in is consistent, I tend to ignore the gauge reading after a refill