Fuel Fill Problems

Hi Guys
Hope you can help me with a problem I'm having when I fill up my truck with gas.

I have a 2004 Tundra double cab that I've owned since new that has done 150k miles. It's been a great truck that has had relatively minor problems. A few weeks ago I went to fill up with gas and was only able to fill about half a tank when the pump shut off because gas was backing up the filler neck. I could get more in by waiting for the gas to drain and constantly stopping and starting the pump or filling agonizingly slowly by just dribbling gas into the tank.

I went home and checked for blockages in fuel fill pipe or anything else obvious. I was able to push a thin fuel hose all the way into the tank. After trying to fill up again at a different station I noticed that the fuel coming up the tube looked quite frothy with lots of bubbles in it. My thoughts are the vent is blocked. The truck is running fine, the gauge seems to be working correctly and I haven't noticed any other issues.

So my question is does anyone have any other ideas and if it is the vent do I drop the tank or pull the bed off to check for the problem. Thanks to anyone for any advice.

 

Check your evap canister. You don’t need to drop the tank for it, it’s underneath the truck bed and held on with a few bolts.

 

Read this article. I think this may be your problem. I've seen this problem before.

https://www.moparmagazine.com/2018/07/too-much-in-the-tank/

 

Just had similar problem with my 2016, so unaware if same tank design but will share my experience that hopefully will help.
After reading this forum about rollover valve, decided to remove my tank to check valve at bottom of fill pipe about 5" down in tank that appeared to be stuck. I can't tell you to do this as it's probably illegal, at least in Toyota's thoughts who want $2,500 bucks to replace tank. I ran a 6-32 all thread down thru anti-siphon screen to force valve open and prevent it from contacting bottom of pipe becoming stuck again. It's been working great no further problems. This valve is to force gas into a column when entering the tank, also preventing air laden with vapors from going to atmosphere. The air is force threw vent line and out to carbon canaster that removes the vapor from displaced air cleaning the atmosphere. After removing the tank and reviewing project, the rod 6" rod could have been inserted by removing the fill hose inserting in center of siphon screen that would be less troublesome, in about half an hour. You would need a mirror and light to see what your doing or can slide the bed back giving you access, a hell-of-a-lot easier than removing tank. I also locked two nuts on top of rod to allow tools to turn rod making installation easier.
Good Luck

 

Thanks for replies. I removed and checked evap cannister yesterday as was suggested. Wasn't quite sure what I was looking for but everything looked normal. No excess fuel smell (in fact surprisingly little fuel smell except from port going to top of tank). I was able to blow air through all ports and no debris or liquid came out of it. Was there a certain test that I was supposed to do?

I read that article and admit I often fill tank up to beyond the first pump shut off but I inspected the vent tube and saw no sign there is or had been fuel in the tube or evap components.

I am able to push a rubber tube all the way from the filler cap down into the tank (I do not have an anti-siphon screen) so it looks like the rollover valve is open.

 

You have been under truck looking at tank, etc. the next question would be can you see inside the tank if you took the fill line off, possible using a flash light and mirror to inspect. This unit being an 04 may not have valve and probably the small tank. After that my next step would be to remove the vent line from canister and try filling it up to make certain all is clear. Another thought would be to get some help and having someone blow air into fill spout while you check the tube where it goes into canaster to determine if that air is escaping from tube, if so, then connect back up while continuing to blow air and determine if air is exiting to atmosphere. After that, I am at a loss and would pull the fill spout off to inspect.

Good luck,

 

From time to time over the years I have had this phenomenon. I assumed each of those timed it was the station with too much pressure. Slowing my feel a tad or moving spout upwards toward outer edge solved it at that moment on time.

 

I've never had the problem, but I also never knew how the systems work. Thank you.

 

Thanks again for replies. I am still working on the issue but waiting until the tank empties a bit to try filling again.
Does anyone know when its time to replace the evap cannister? When air was moving through it I noticed a little small amount of restriction but I'm not sure how much there should be.

 

So I think I was wrong when I said there was no screen in my tank. I removed the filler tube and was able to take a photo inside the tank. Can someone confirm this is what I should be looking at when everything is normal in the tank.


The truck has started to show P0442 code now (small evap leak) though I don't know whether that was me removing the evap cannister or a fault code related to my original problem.

 

Don't really have any advice other than to clear your P0442 code with a code reader or disconnect battery and see if it comes back but here's a thread bump as I'm curious of the issue here.

 

Thanks for all replies and kfrog for relaying his experience and nick for the bump I will try and summarize where I am right now. I pulled the evap can off again and carefully cleaned and attached all hoses using clamps for those lines that I felt needed a little help that didn't originally have them. Cleared codes and so far they haven't come up again so fingers crossed that was my work that caused the codes.

Now on the original problem where I might of made a mistake and assumed something I shouldn't of which led me to this point. When I originally checked for blockages I pushed a 5/16 fuel hose into the tank and when it came out with 2 or 3 inches of fuel on the bottom of the tube I assumed it had reached well inside the tank because at the time I thought I was dealing with a tank that was only half full. Well after looking into the top of the tank, seeing the screen and realizing that there was no way the tube could of reached into the tank more than an inch or two I must of had a full tank at that point!

So after all this (hope I'm not boring anyone here!) I am now thinking that it's possible the gauge was showing lower than it should of done (I have not driven my truck much in the last few months so might of lost track of fuel level versus miles driven) and also didn't register the full tank when I filled up twice.

I'm wondering if it's possible for the gauge to react like this instead of just not working at all. I welcome any comments on this. Also if there is an easy way to check how much fuel is in the tank to verify fuel gauge accuracy.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

 

Won't use the word easy but to test fuel gauge, one has to access the sender gauge plug. You can check the combination meter gauge easily but would not call that conclusive. The below pdf is from the 2004 FSM.