W124 needs slow fuel filling or petrol pump cuts out.

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quenching

Active Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Messages
186
Location
Ireland
Car
'84 W201 2.0E, '91 W124 230TE estate
My 1991 W124 estate has an annoying problem, I have to fill it with petrol REALLY slowly or the fuel bubbles up and makes the petrol pump cut out. I can only fill at a rate of about 1 litre every 10 seconds, so a 50l fill takes about 8 minutes. BTW, the car came with an invoice for a new fuel tank buried in the folder of receipts.

Any ideas?
 
Quite often these problems are the angle of the nozzle in the tube filler.

Try twisting the nozzle significantly clockwise or anti-clock and see if things improve.
 
Quite often these problems are the angle of the nozzle in the tube filler.

Try twisting the nozzle significantly clockwise or anti-clock and see if things improve.

Thanks, but no amount of moving the pump nozzle makes much difference.

These estates have 2 fuel pumps to prevent primary pump starvation [ that's the one under the plastic shield in front of the rear suspension. The priming pump is much closer to the tank and may not be functioning . FUEL LINES FUEL SYSTEM Is the breather pipe from tank to filler pipe blocked item 62 here FUEL TANK WITH ATTACHMENT PARTS FUEL SYSTEM

I'm not sure I understand the relevance of the priming pump to the problem with tank filling, am I missing something? However, the breather pipe being blocked makes perfect sense, any pointers on how to check this or unblock it would be much appreciated.
 
The connection between the vent hose and the filler neck is easily accessible through the side compartment in the boot. One jubilee clip to undo and you'd be able to try blowing down it etc.

If the car has always been a PITA to get petrol in since you've owned it my money is on someone squashing the vent hose when they swapped the tank- you might even get lucky and be able to spot where it's pinched as the fiddliest part of removing/fitting the tank is 'steering' the filler neck around things
 
has the tank collapsed again because the original problem causing the original tank to collapse was not sorted ?

It's all connected with the fuel evaporation system, so you need to look at the manual for that system.

The charcoal filter behind front wing being blocked is one reason a tank can collapse.
 
The connection between the vent hose and the filler neck is easily accessible through the side compartment in the boot. One jubilee clip to undo and you'd be able to try blowing down it etc.

If the car has always been a PITA to get petrol in since you've owned it my money is on someone squashing the vent hose when they swapped the tank- you might even get lucky and be able to spot where it's pinched as the fiddliest part of removing/fitting the tank is 'steering' the filler neck around things

PITA since I got it alright, no idea why the tank was replaced to start with but I'll check the vent hose today and see if I can blow down it.

has the tank collapsed again because the original problem causing the original tank to collapse was not sorted ?

It's all connected with the fuel evaporation system, so you need to look at the manual for that system.

The charcoal filter behind front wing being blocked is one reason a tank can collapse.

The car if off for a service today so I'll get them to check if the tank has collapsed or not, hopefully its OK ;-)
 
As yours is an estate chances are the filler neck split and was leaking fuel.
 
So, tank was still in good shape and had the short breather hose and those going to the charcoal filter all checked, blown through, and all are clear now. Not sure if they were blocked or not and won't know if the problem is solved until the weekend. The mechanic said he thought the filler neck should protrude a bit more through the opening in the body so maybe a MB tank wasn't fitted when the original was replaced.
 

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