306 Meridian - Can't put petrol in the tank...!

[seawings]

Hi All,

My Y reg 306 has developed a problem in the past three weeks that when I go to fill it at the garage, after about £6 pounds worth, the fuel starts blowing back out of the filling hole past the nozzle as if I have just overfilled it.

The fuel gauge seems to be stuck on full when the engine is running and when I switch off it goes down to empty as the power is off, so the gauge moves.

I've put a hose pipe down the fuel spout and seen that the tank is nearly empty by measuring the 'wet patch level' on the pipe.

I havn't a clue what's going on here.....

Any suggestions anyone as to what to do?

Regards,

SEAWINGS

[battlestar]

Hmm, to me that sound a lot like your tank is infact full.

You say it takes in about 6GBP worth of fuel, which should be just enough to fill up the fuel duct from fuel cap to the fuel tank. The fact that you put in something in the duct to measure level of fuel indicates that it is not blocked or anything.

Mind you, the tank in 306 is horizontal, like on most other cars, and its not very big (tall), so if the fuel duct was empty but tank still full, you would still get just few inches of fuel on whatever you pushed into it.

Unless something is very very wrong with your fuel tank, like if its full of something i dont know what, that would prevent it getting filled, i would recommend you to fill up a 5 litter bottle with fuel, put it into your trunk as an emergency fuel reserve, and drive your car for some 200 miles and see if the fuel gauge goes down or if it ends up empty and shuts off.

[bettyswollocks]

Try putting some in from a jerry can to see how much will go in .

[battlestar]

Originally Posted by bettyswollocks

Try putting some in from a jerry can to see how much will go in .

And in addition to what betty said, try putting in bit by bit and see if it settles in so you can add more.

[seawings]

Originally Posted by bettyswollocks

Try putting some in from a jerry can to see how much will go in .

Yes, I was thinking of that. The car is my son's vehicle and like all youngsters he bombs around in it without much aforethought! The funny thing is when he is driving, the fuel guage stays at full and yet when he sitches off, it drops to zero.

Thge other thing that has happened is ythat he nearly rang out of fuel a few weeks ago and crawled into a flling station on fumes.

I wonder if that has dragged muck and mess from the bottom of the tank anywhere, because he has mentioned a loss of pwer as well.....

Thanks for the thoughts everyone.

Regards,

SEAWINGS