I just wanted to share my experience with everyone. Hopefully you can learn from my mistake.

I have a habit of topping off at the gas station. Been doing it for years with no ill affect to my other cars till almost two weeks ago. Was at the Costco gas filling up for a road trip in two days. I gave a a bit more gas after the nozzle clicked off. Then strange things started to happen.

1. Car was difficult to start, (i.e symptoms: Engine flooding and idling rough.)

2. Car would die after I let off the gas. Could not hold its idle.

These two things happened several times in a 1/2 mile radius. Finally decided to tow my car to a dealership. They found the prob to be, a flooded vapor recovery system where sensors and other components were damaged due to topping off. This cause engine flooding and miss firing.

Currently one part is on back order and has been for over a week now. Still undetermined when I will get back my car.

Hope everyone else can avoid making my mistake.

 

Doh!! thanks for the heads up

 

SHIET....I've been topping off every other time I get gas! AAArrgg....maybe that explains why my gas guage doesnt go up to FULL even though gas is virtually leaking off!

 

Wow.. that's strange. I always top off.. and have even had it spill once or twice when the nozzle didn't shutoff at full and I've never had this problem. Something to keep in mind I guess...

 

Well, strange prob none the less. First car I have killed due to topping off. Itching to get my car back even though they gave me a 03 TL-p loaner.

 

I always top off, except my 97 Jeep Cherokee. If I try to put anything in the tank after the first click of the pump, there will be gas everywhere.

Regardless, I always top off the 03 TLS.

 

I never top off.

 

by topping off do you mean just getting the change to be even?...the service men at the gas station always do that...it'd be hard to pay if they didnt

 

how do you flood a fuel injected engine? I think the dealer is full of it or this would be happening every time you "top it off" and to all these others who do the same.

 

Well, they lifted the car and showed me what needed to be replaced and where they were. The vapor recovery system is part of the fuel system near the gas tank. Apparently when they removed the containers where vapor is collected before being released in the air there was gasoline in the container where none should be and they are cleaning out my gas tank. So apparently the whole fuel system is being cleaned out and don't think they would want to do all that under warranty.

I was wondering how you flood a fuel injection system too but the flooding symptom is due to the miss fire in the cylinder. It seems strange but it could happen and I doubt my dealer would be pulling my leg. They have had the car for quite sometime and I am racking up miles on their loaner. I highly doubt they want a car in there for over a week (its been 11 days) while I rack up miles on their car (over 1200 miles so far).

 

this happened to me on my S420, while I was traveling cross country. Took me 30 miles of driving to bleed off the over fill. I had the same sypmtoms, stalling bucking and misfiring.
Took the car to the dealership and since I had burned off the overfill immediately with driving, there was no damage to the car.

 

I don't know about this... I had a misfire problem when I bought the car, but that was due to bent pins in the coil packs. (so it looked connected by really wasn't). Dealer took care of it... took em a while to find out what was wrong as the ECU kept giving misfire codes and they did not know why until they finally decided to take everything apart.

I'm not saying it could not happen, some agree to similar situations. But don't you think manufactures would make sure it does not happen. With so many TL's on the road I'm sure tanks have been overfilled a couple of times (hell I do it almost every week, but I stay within reasonable limits like to the quarter). Maybe you just got a batch of bad gas...

 

Yeah, this topping off business is quite strange to me too. I have never heard of this problem.

As for the the fuel gauge not registering a full tank, there was a service bulletin on this problem from the '99 and '00 models. The fuel sending unit needs to be replaced. This is located on the gas tank. My '99 had this unit changed out twice before I made Acura buy back the car. The first year's was a POS.....at least mine was.

 

Never top off your car as to this effect all it does is waste fuel.
This extra fuel goes to the charcol canister & is wasted. My sister always does this to round off the numbers as she calls it. But don't do it because this is what can happen. When the pump clicks off you should stop fueling up. If its like $ 19.97 on the pump you could get it to $20.00. But someple just keep pumping more. When its hot you should not do it at all.

 

Never had any issues on the TLS or Max or any cars I have had in 15 years of doing it. If I dont go a little more after the click my cars never register full.

 

You sure your gas cap just wasn't on tight enough? Isn't the above symptoms caused by that?

Nothing we can do about it in Jersey. Full Service and they always top off.

 

I never top off b/c i don't want my paint to mess up. And 2, it's bad for the environment.

 

This is another reason for not doing it. Don't most gas stations have signs or plackards saying DO NOT TOP OFF?

 

They do, cause they are afraid of spilling gasoline in the environment. Old habits of topping off are hard to break as you see with some of these posts. No more topping of for me.

12days in the shop and still no part.

 

Companies spend a lot of money to develop special pumps to capture the gas fumes. Topping off just lets all these fumes out. Gas can evaporate u know. That's why the gas tanks are in the ground....

 

why do people top off anyways??...so that they can go for 0.0001 miles longer? someone tell me please!

 

I have found pumps that never fill properly b4. They would leave 1 gallon less than full. If you are paying cash, it sucks to get pennies. Always looking for the nearest quarter. Those are my reasons.

 

<---- always tops off.

 

Yeah its a known thing with our cars, and most new cars... occasionally, very rarely, topping off actually fills the vapor release lines under the car (looks like brake lines, but its not) with gas, and the car really freaks out... tottaly thrashes the vapor venting system and the fuel computer. gotta love it. NEVER TOP OFF!

 

yup, thats what they look like. There rubber hoses that is near the driver side rear wheel. Mechanic said when he emptied the tank to put new gas in, gasoline was leaking from the bottom of the car. Then he knew some gas got in to those lines and in the system. If you lift the car in the area there is a rubber hose that isn't air tight and releases vapor and a plastic rectangular container (not sure what's inside it) that was drenched in gasoline.

 

yup, thats what they look like. There rubber hoses that is near the driver side rear wheel. Mechanic said when he emptied the tank to put new gas in, gasoline was leaking from the bottom of the car. Then he knew some gas got in to those lines and in the system. If you lift the car in the area there is a rubber hose that isn't air tight and releases vapor and a plastic rectangular container (not sure what's inside it) that was drenched in gasoline.

Darkshear knows what I am talking about.

 

You know what's intersesting? I went and got gas yesterday and it's the first time in history the guy didn't really top it off too bad. The bill was 24.13 and he made it 24.15. Maybe he reads this forum? My Max has a big tank I had 414 miles on that fill.

 

I had a similar situation happen with our previous '98 Pathfinder.

CEL came on and they traced it to a problem with the vapor recovery system, and the charcoal cannister was damaged. It was covered under warranty, but they told us that topping off is a common problem.