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I was wondering about those who overfill their tanks, do you do it consistently or only sometimes for a specific reason, and wouldn't it distort your tank FE?

It would seem like the first time you overfill, your calculated tank mileage for that last tank would bomb due to the extra gallons you’re adding. Then once you’ve driven that tank a record number of miles on all that gas you have the choice whether to overfill again. If you do overfill, you will get your “normal” tank mileage back for those record miles. But if you don’t, and just fill to the first click, your tank mileage will now jump higher than normal, since you drove more miles, and put in less gas. I know your FE will still average out the same in the end, but overfilling seems like one of those things you’d either do consistently or never, and wondered about it.

Hi Tarabell:

___In some vehicles, topping off with a known quantity is not a guarantee of a full tank. The Insight is famous for this as sometimes she holds just under 11 gallons and other times she will hold almost 14. The Prius’ and their bladdered tanks here in North America is another example of in-consistent fills topped off or not! I top off for range and I detest stopping at gas stations. From the time I picked up the Accord, I immediately went to the nearest fuel station and topped her off from the supposed full of fuel the Honda dealership allowed. The miles recorded in the DBase are those from that initial top off through today so no discrepancies have appeared. Those that top off one tank and first click the next are going to be low one tank and high the next. Fortunately, those that alternate the types of fills will see their real lmpg come closer to actual with any amount of miles accumulated.

___With that, even though our FCD’s are not an exact match for most, they are relatively close irregardless of a top off, first click, or partial fill.

___Lastly, you probably have those hard seat - vapor recovery nozzles in LA like I saw in the San Francisco area earlier this year, right? When we were considering moving out there, I would have created a short hard plastic nozzle extender so as to be able to top off myself. I should probably do that today to remove any vapor that may escape when filling with the std. nozzles most are intimately familiar with.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

:Banane37: I fill mine all the time every tank to the {VERY-TOP}. I like driving 3-Weeks and then Filling it again.

I was doing full tank top offs until the heat of the summer forced me to stop. Once the pump clicks off even with a shallow nozzel insert it takes quite awhile to get it toped off. Also we had daily ozone alerts.

Im back to ,,, pump shuts off then round up to the nearist dollar and call it good.

Unlike Wayne. I enjoy a stop at where I buy 99% of my gas. Its a welcome social break in the day. Wife and I are good friends with the owners. so for us its a chance to get caught up on the events of the day and the local gossip of Okmulgee. :)

I was doing full tank top offs until the heat of the summer forced me to stop. Once the pump clicks off even with a shallow nozzel insert it takes quite awhile to get it toped off. Also we had daily ozone alerts.

Im back to ,,, pump shuts off then round up to the nearist dollar and call it good.

Unlike Wayne. I enjoy a stop at where I buy 99% of my gas. Its a welcome social break in the day. Wife and I are good friends with the owners. so for us its a chance to get caught up on the events of the day and the local gossip of Okmulgee. :)

Hi Psy,

Here it is just another Shell Station to Fill-Up. So unlike a Smaller Town/City where one can (Visit). Nice to be able to "Visit". :Banane03:

Until recently, I never topped off. I have now done it once in my HCHII and mulitple times in my Odyssey. I think I will be done topping off after my current Odyssey tank. The way I handle it is that I always use the first click as the reference point. I record this number of gallons and the final number of gallons. For a one time top off, you would use the first click number to calculate the fuel economy for the previous tank. All of the extra gallons would be added to the subsequent tank. This seems like a perfect solution for someone who wants to occasionally top off, but wants to keep the database entries for each tank accurate.

I just use the same technique every time and let it click-off at the first opportunity. I set the notch on the lowest setting so it doesn't fill too fast in the neck and stop too early.

Filling to the brim is terrible on Ozone days (or any day really), so I don't do it for that reason as well.

In the end, statistics will prevail with the law of averages.

RH77

http://www.epa.gov/donttopoff/

Any thoughts?

Don't top off just to be safe.

I don't think toping off is the worst thing someone could do though.

I stopped toping off not because of all the bad things that can happen, but because spending an extra 2 or 3 minutes for that last gallon wasn't worth it.

I top off every time. I have found that after the first click, I can get a little over 2 more gallons in the tank.

Hi All,

:Banane37: I think as has been discussed here and other Forums on any given thing that it is a "Personal-Decision".

Terry (tiger)

Yup, I top it off, shake back & forth and jam more in if I can.
:driveby1: