What the....! PETROL LEAK

[s1.5f]

Just got called to the carpark as someone noticed petrol leaking from my petrol tank overflow pipe. popped open the filler and sh$t it is so full its now p$ssing out all over the wing, immediate thought was that one of the kids has filled it up with water or juice or worse! drove round the carpark waiting for the horrible spluttering but the petrol disappears back into the tank - is this an airlock or something and what the hell causes it! I was sparked at a slightly forward angle (ie nose down about 5 degrees) today but this is pretty serious not only from a £££ optimax point of view but also fire risk!

[greenv8s]

Petrol expands when it gets hot - had you recently filled up and then left it somewhere hot?

[s1.5f]

Surely not from half full to overflowing...

[andyf007]

Mine did as Peter said last year. Noticed it a lot in warmer weather, it doesn't take much of a rise in temperature to get petrol to vapourise excessively. It was guaranteed to do it after a fill up, so I started not trying to overfill the tank. That cured it, but it's pretty flat in this part of the world, so I guess any angle that causes the fuel level to block the lower end of the filler pipe would cause this to happen with less than a full tank.

You could cure it by drilling a hole in the top of the fuel tank:, but this may not be ideal nono:

Andy