my husband and I have had problems filling my gas tank. It takes foremver, the pump keeps shutting off, as if the tank were full, but after only $3.00 of gas, and on. and on. It took 15 minutes to put $20 of gas in the car yesterday. Took it to honda dealer, showed them the "if fuel nozzel keeps clicking off (Page 125, Honda Pilot 2004 Owner’s Manual). Gas attendent seemed to know about it, said it was covered by warranty. Not sure at 78,000 miles, but Honda Dealer today, all three service people, said they’d never heard of it, couldn’t find anything on the Honda mechanics site. Then said it might cost $150 to 260 to fix. So, why is a note about the problem in the manual. What is causing it and how much will it cost to fix?
The most likely cause is contamination of the carbon canister that is the heart of the car’s evaporative emissions system.
The most frequent cause of carbon canister contamination is filling the tank after the gas station’s pump has shut off for the first time. If you are one of those “click, click, click–let’s keep forcing gas into the tank” folks, then you have caused this damage yourself from too many incidents of overfilling the tank.
If the carbon canister is indeed contaminated, it could cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 to replace that part.
On the other hand, you could have a spider nest in the evaporative emissions lines. While Hyundais seem to be particularly prone to this situation, it can happen on any car. The solution in this case is to have the evap lines blown out with compressed air, after detaching them at both ends. For your sake, I hope that you have a spider nest problem, rather than a carbon canister problem.
There is a TSB for a fuel tank filling concern but when I go to read it, it says “file not found at this time, please try later”. For 2005 there is a actual recall that involves replacing the fuel tank. You have to try and read that 2004 TSB that I cannot get too.
If you are in the habit of topping off the tank, that could be the cause. It can damage the charcoal canister in the vapor recovery system and it may require replacement. Your owner’s manual likely warns you about it as well as a sticker somewhere on the car.
Many of the other likely causes are discussed in this thread
http://act…40809.page
Good Luck
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