I was at the gas station returning from a road trip and the pump didn't shut off. The result was a overfilled gas tank with 8.3 gallons and 2 pips left. My question is, can this damage anything? The first pip didn't go away until 160 miles which never happens for me.
While it has happened that people have gotten the fume absorbing canister soaked by overfilling, and setting a warning light on the dash, it doesn't always happen. With the Prius bladder tank, filling is always a little bit of an adventure. Search for "bladder" on this site for lots of discussion about it.
That's happened to me too Eddie. It's not ideal, but as long as you don't make a habit of it then it doesn't seem to hurt anything.
There is a filter toward the top of the filler neck. If you overfill too many times, this will clog and need to be replaced. It will cost over $200.00 at the dealer. Best to avoid that. I am not saying that YOU did this intentionally, but, people who force more gas in after the first click damage that filter.
I all ways top mine off so you can't put another drop in and never had a problem. One time I ran it down to fume and it took 11.8 gallons. I guess I have been just lucky.
Knock on wood.... I am kind of OCD about making sure my tank is filled to the brim, regardless of warnings not to... No problems yet, luckily, and I've gone over 200 miles before dropping the first PiP. Biggest fill up I ever had was 12.76 gallons. Not sure how it all fit in there!
LOL. I have wondered how so much fuel fits in the tank. The first time it went over 12 gallons, I was thinking the gas pump wasn't accurate, but I've put over 12 gallons in at enough different stations to rule that out. The Prius isn't the only car I've gotten to hold more gas than it's advertised to hold. My '71 Buick Skylark has a 20 gallon tank and I've fit almost 20.5 in it, and the '01 Chevy 2500HD pickup I just sold is rated at 34, and I've fit 34.1 in that. I guess maybe the manufacturers don't count the filler tube, or they have an allowance for a minimal amount of airspace in the tank.
