Gas pump clicks off @ half full on gauge

[Twista]

So, for some reason i cant fill my car up with gas. It usually takes $43 to fill up my car now days. Now all of sudden the pump clicks off @ $26 which is about 6 gallons. When i start my car the gauge is in the MIDDLE meaning i have half of tank right?

If i try to force gas in when the pump clicks off.. i end up with gas spilling out onto the ground :| meanwhile my gas gauge is in the middle.

Yesterday, i got fed up with the car and drove it around a long time with the gas gauge hand on E and the car never cut off. It was like the car has gas but the gauge was on E.

So, now im at a split in the road.
A) Either my gas gauge says im half full when im really 100% full

B) My gas gauge is broke.

C) Something else is wrong with my car.

Its a 1995 Mustang GT.
Anyone had this problem before?

 

[EightySix Four]

So, for some reason i cant fill my car up with gas. It usually takes $43 to fill up my car now days. Now all of sudden the pump clicks off @ $26 which is about 6 gallons. When i start my car the gauge is in the MIDDLE meaning i have half of tank right?

If i try to force gas in when the pump clicks off.. i end up with gas spilling out onto the ground :| meanwhile my gas gauge is in the middle.

Yesterday, i got fed up with the car and drove it around a long time with the gas gauge hand on E and the car never cut off. It was like the car has gas but the gauge was on E.

So, now im at a split in the road.
A) Either my gas gauge says im half full when im really 100% full

B) My gas gauge is broke.

C) Something else is wrong with my car.

Its a 1995 Mustang GT.
Anyone had this problem before?

Your gas gauge is now broken. It is 1/2 tank off. At 1/2 you are full, at E you have 1/2 tank. You can get it fixed or start tracking mileage.

 

[LTC8K6]

I'll take doors A & B, Monty...

Actually, it could well be the sender in the tank that's not working.

Might be gummed up. Maybe some fuel system cleaner or STA-BIL could free it up.

Or not.

 

[Twista]

Your gas gauge is now broken. It is 1/2 tank off. At 1/2 you are full, at E you have 1/2 tank. You can get it fixed or start tracking mileage.

:| My mileage odometers are broken. The joys of owning such a old mustang :awe:

Ill try the fuel system cleaner though..

thanks

 

[Imp]

I kind of had a similar problem with a company Prius. I drove about a hundred miles, came back to fill up, and it filled 0.50 litres. Did some googling and it turned out there may be gas build-up or whatever that causes the pump sensor to click too early.

Didn't have the balls to keep pumping until the gas started spilling out, so no idea what happened.

If it's leaking out of your car while the gauge is still half-way, I think you can figure it out.

 

[ShawnD1]

Did you do any crazy shit like drive through a field or hit something on the highway?


My first car slammed something pretty hard on the highway. It ripped off much of the exhaust system and it dented the gas tank. The tank would only hold something like 30L before the pump would click off. One time it filled up to 50L somehow (wtf?)
At least look at the bottom of your car. If there's a big gash in the tank, you should see it without having to look too hard.

 

[joutlaw]

I would bet it's related the EVAP system.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

Did you do any crazy shit like drive through a field or hit something on the highway?


My first car slammed something pretty hard on the highway. It ripped off much of the exhaust system and it dented the gas tank. The tank would only hold something like 30L before the pump would click off. One time it filled up to 50L somehow (wtf?)
At least look at the bottom of your car. If there's a big gash in the tank, you should see it without having to look too hard.

Your logic sucks there. Might as well check the whole underneath...

 

[brblx]

seeing as it takes fuel just fine and then suddenly does not, i would agree that something is up with the fuel sender and/or gauge. way to confirm would be to physically examine the level in the tank (if the pump is easily accessibly i.e. access panel beneath rear seat). if that's not possible or would require dropping the tank, i'd say just run it to E and then let it idle in the driveway for a few hours. yeah, idling takes little fuel, but if it's still going after 120min+, something's up.

i would say that it could possibly be something like a plugged filler vent tube, but that generally wouldn't allow you to pump 5-6 gallons flawlessly and then act up.

 

[brblx]

Your logic sucks there. Might as well check the whole underneath...

i guess this is why manufacturers and automotive schools always describe the 'repair process' as beginning with a visual inspection. might as well catch something dumb like a caved-in gas tank before you start doing electrical tests or such. but i'm guessing the OP might notice if he had rammed anything solid into his gas tank recently.

 

[Throckmorton]

seeing as it takes fuel just fine and then suddenly does not, i would agree that something is up with the fuel sender and/or gauge. way to confirm would be to physically examine the level in the tank (if the pump is easily accessibly i.e. access panel beneath rear seat). if that's not possible or would require dropping the tank, i'd say just run it to E and then let it idle in the driveway for a few hours. yeah, idling takes little fuel, but if it's still going after 120min+, something's up.

i would say that it could possibly be something like a plugged filler vent tube, but that generally wouldn't allow you to pump 5-6 gallons flawlessly and then act up.

The pump at the gas station turns off halfway, not his fuel pump

 

[LTC8K6]

Just the other day, I noticed my liftgate was completely caved in. Apparently I slammed backwards into a pole on the way to work, and never noticed. Good thing I looked back there...

 

[Zenmervolt]

i guess this is why manufacturers and automotive schools always describe the 'repair process' as beginning with a visual inspection. might as well catch something dumb like a caved-in gas tank before you start doing electrical tests or such. but i'm guessing the OP might notice if he had rammed anything solid into his gas tank recently.

There's no way a stove-in tank would cause the issue described.

(1) The possibility that the tank was dented so much that its capacity was cut in half is so small as to be considered impossible in ordinary troubleshooting.

(2) Even if such a thing had happened, the fuel gauge would still read "full" when the tank was filled because even with the dent, a full tank would push the fuel sender float to the top of its travel.

(3) Even if the float system was damaged such that the float couldn't reach the top of the sender unit, it still wouldn't go to the "empty" position until the tank was actually empty, which, based on the OP, is not actually happening. (The OP describes the car as running for a very long time while on "empty.")

(4) If there were an issue in the filler tube where a kink was causing an obstruction and not allowing full flow into the tank (causing backpressure that would make the pump click off early), the tank wouldn't fill properly at all as opposed to the tank filling just fine until the pump shuts off at a point where the gauge is only reading 1/2 tank.

While I do agree that a basic physical inspection is the way to start any trouble-shooting process, there's simply no way that a stove-in tank could cause the conditions described by the OP. Shawn might as well have suggested that the OP check to make sure he didn't have a headlight out for all the good it would do in solving the problem described in the original post.

ZV