Hi all,
I know I’ll probably get some snickers with this one, but please don’t laugh too hard. I have a 2005 Scion xB. After running out of gas one evening, I went to the gas station for a can and filled up my tank with enough fuel to get to me moving.
The only thing is that when I placed the nozzle of the gas can into my tank, the end of the gas can nozzle broke off and lodged into my tank. When I poked a hanger into the tank to try and retrieve the plastic piece, it slid further into my gas tank.
This, of course, broke off the small tab in my gas tank which controls the gas pump when refueling and now everytime I gas up, the pump thinks my tank is fuel and I get the annoying “ker-thunk” of the gas pump not allowing me to smoothly pump gas. This is becoming extremely frustrating.
Is there anything I can do short of dropping the gas tank and removing the plastic piece and then getting the tab replaced? Help me please!
The broken tab does not directly have anything to do with the pump shutting off too soon. The thing that shuts the fuel pump off is inside the fuel pump handle. Your problem is that the small piece of plastic and maybe the metal tab are stuck inside the fuel filler pipe and blocking the flow of fuel into your gas tank. This blockage is being detected by the fuel pump handle and causing it to shut off. If it didn’t gas would come squirting back out at you because it can’t make it into the tank at a reasonable rate.
The fix is to disconnect the filler pipe and remove the obstructions of the plastic piece and the metal tab. There is no real need to replace the metal tab (I assume you refer to the internal fuel filler door). Until you do or have this done, you will have to pump gas at the slowest setting.
There is no need to drop the gas tank.
Disconnect the filler pipe hose clamps and remove it from the gas tank.