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In Reply to: Pressure in Gas Tank? posted by Mark on March 13, 2000 at 16:27:22:
This may (or may not!) be entirely normal. I've noticed it on a lot of my cars, no matter what the marque is. One thing to remember: gasoline is a volatile liquid, which means that it evaporates (phase changes) easily. If your gas tank volume is low, the bulk of the tank will be filled with gasoline fumes. The more heat applied to the tank, the more gas fumes are generated, building up a positive pressure. Gas systems are supposed to be vented (cap, tank, etc.) but I've found that this venting may not be adequate on some cars, or there may be a pressure relief valve of some type which only opens above a set value. So when you remove the cap, you may be releasing the pressure of gas fumes in the system, hence the outflow from the filler. [If you remember a couple of years ago, when Flight 800 went down off the East Coast, the cause was speculated to be gas fume build-up in an empty center tank, ignited by faulty wiring. Which doesn't mean that this can happen to your car, just illustrates what happens in a gas tank that's not full of liquid.] Anyway, IMHO, if you are not experiencing any other problems (gas starvation, fuel pump problems, etc.) then this may be a normal condition.
BTW, I'm probably asking for trouble, but I routinely drive my car until the low gas indicator comes on. I have not noticed any problems, YET!. I am trying to be more careful about it, after reading some of the posts below.
Stan C.
'92 Blue 850i auto, 77K mi
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