The last two times I have had to fuel my vehicle it has taken over ten minutes to get gas in it. It is not the pump as i went to different stations. Is the overflow tube the problem or is there some sort of sensor in tank that is preventing fuel from entering at anything above a trickle? The engine light is not on.
Any help is appreciated.
This likely indicates a problem with the evaporative emissions system. While there can be other causes, it frequently results from drivers who insist on continuing to pump in extra gasoline after the pump shuts off. (You know-click, click, click–which results in adding perhaps enough extra gas to be able to drive 10 miles) The addition of extra gasoline at that point can result in liquid gasoline flooding into the carbon canister which is only designed to handle gasoline fumes.
The symptoms that you report can also be the result of a bad valve in the evaporative emissions system. Either way, you need to have the evaporative emissions system checked out. If you need to have the carbon canister replaced, be prepared for a very expensive bill, unfortunately.
In the 2000-2002 model years, manufacturers were forced to modify the evaporative emissions control system to reduce the fumes vented into the atmosphere during fueling. The result seems to be a rash of “my car won’t accept gasoline” problems. What “they” did seems pretty much universally was to enlarge the activated carbon cannister that previously was used to store gas fumes forced out of the tank on hot days in order to absorb the gas fumes pushed out of the tank during fueling. this seems to have made the already complex plumbing around the gas tank even more complicated.
The simplistic answer is to blame motorists for topping off their tanks – which can flood the carbon cannister on some cars apparently. I suspect that is a problem in some cases. But I think that a lot of the problems may be because something in the rather elaborate plumbing is broken. I don’t even know for sure that your 2000 Camry has a newfangled vapor handling system.
It also seems not right to me that there is not a check engine light and one or more stored codes. One possible explanation was that your car has an old-fangled fueling system and that the hose that vents the gasses escaping from the gas tank during fueling is plugged and is not allowing air and gas vapor to move out of the way of the incoming gasoline. That condition was not – I’m pretty sure – computer checked in old-fashioned fueling systems.
Anyway, I personally never go near a dealer’s service department except to buy parts I can’t get elsewhere. But this is a situation where I think the best solution – unfortunately – is to call the local Toyota dealer and to take the car to the dealer if they don’t come across as totally clueless. You may get anything from a snow job to a quick, efficient, repair.
I had this same problem on my 2000 Prizm. I took it to my local mechanic, Brian Crawford, and it turned out to be a puzzle. He told me it wouldn’t be the EVAP canister being clogged by adding too much fuel. That seems to be a common myth on the internet. He was right, that is impossible. Hours went by and still no answer. I prayed to the One who made everything and knows it best. He dropped the tank and started pulling stuff off of it until he found one evap hose had been clogged by dirt daubers. Those insects cost me $200! But he cleaned them out and now it works very well. Praise the Lord.