DO NOT over fill your Tuscan. Gutted...
Discussion
I came across a nearly empty petrol station yesterday morning on the way to work. What with my general hatred for queuing and being pretty low on fuel, I took the opportunity to fill up in order to avoid all the panic buyers over the next few days (does this make me one of them? 
). I know it's bad for these cars to be brimmed with fuel, so I stopped filling when the overflow preventer kicked in on the filler nozzle. I've filled the car up this much on several occasions, however I now realise that this has always been followed by a long journey which uses up a big chunk of the fuel. This time, my journey was about a mile up the road to the office car park...
9 hours later I return to find my car stinking of petrol. I lift the boot lid and immediately notice the area around the filler cap to be wet. On closer inspection I notice little blisters in the paint.
Feeling rather gutted about this, I then noticed that the area under the boot lid where water usually collects was full of petrol!! It's then that I saw THIS
It gets worse. Much worse.
What you can't really see is a 30cm wide area of paint from the boot lid to the bottom of the car is now a very rough texture and slightly pimpled.
It seems the paint has somehow found its way under the paint, probably down to a dodgy paint job done by a previous owner.
I soaked up as much of the petrol as I could from the filler hole to bring it down to the level you can see in the above picture. Desperately wanting to get the car to a bodyshop I wondered whether starting the car would bring the fuel level down enough for me to drive it safely. But no, it did the complete opposite. The fuel level started to rise until overflowing again! In the end a local bar owner very kindly cut me a length of hosepipe so I could siphon off as much as possible allowing me to drive the car away.
The body shop were great. The chap has a very good local reputation, and the quality of the work he does is amazing. Really knows his stuff too. He pointed out within a few seconds which areas of the car had been repainted in the past (I already knew) and found the point at which the petrol had found its way under the paint. He's given me a very reasonable quote to sort it out, and a few other areas of the car which he said could do with improving. However, this does not include the price of the paint and reflex charcoal is bloody expensive
Don't suppose anyone has any going spare? Bodyshop seems to think 1/4 litre should do the job. If I do have to get a batch made up, does anyone (or a few of us?) want to share the cost so you have some spare paint should the worst happen to your car?
A couple more pics:
I always thought brimming the tank involved squeezing in a couple more litres after the autostop function had kicked in on the filler. Obviously not in the case of a TVR. Be careful everyone
). I know it's bad for these cars to be brimmed with fuel, so I stopped filling when the overflow preventer kicked in on the filler nozzle. I've filled the car up this much on several occasions, however I now realise that this has always been followed by a long journey which uses up a big chunk of the fuel. This time, my journey was about a mile up the road to the office car park...9 hours later I return to find my car stinking of petrol. I lift the boot lid and immediately notice the area around the filler cap to be wet. On closer inspection I notice little blisters in the paint.
Feeling rather gutted about this, I then noticed that the area under the boot lid where water usually collects was full of petrol!! It's then that I saw THIS
It gets worse. Much worse.
What you can't really see is a 30cm wide area of paint from the boot lid to the bottom of the car is now a very rough texture and slightly pimpled.
It seems the paint has somehow found its way under the paint, probably down to a dodgy paint job done by a previous owner.
I soaked up as much of the petrol as I could from the filler hole to bring it down to the level you can see in the above picture. Desperately wanting to get the car to a bodyshop I wondered whether starting the car would bring the fuel level down enough for me to drive it safely. But no, it did the complete opposite. The fuel level started to rise until overflowing again! In the end a local bar owner very kindly cut me a length of hosepipe so I could siphon off as much as possible allowing me to drive the car away.
The body shop were great. The chap has a very good local reputation, and the quality of the work he does is amazing. Really knows his stuff too. He pointed out within a few seconds which areas of the car had been repainted in the past (I already knew) and found the point at which the petrol had found its way under the paint. He's given me a very reasonable quote to sort it out, and a few other areas of the car which he said could do with improving. However, this does not include the price of the paint and reflex charcoal is bloody expensive
Don't suppose anyone has any going spare? Bodyshop seems to think 1/4 litre should do the job. If I do have to get a batch made up, does anyone (or a few of us?) want to share the cost so you have some spare paint should the worst happen to your car?A couple more pics:
I always thought brimming the tank involved squeezing in a couple more litres after the autostop function had kicked in on the filler. Obviously not in the case of a TVR. Be careful everyone
Really gutted for you mate, i hope you get it fixed with minimal fuss.
Scary stuff, things like this make you wonder they are worth it sometimes....i have been getting really p!ssed off with the never ending list of things to do, and the list of things you then get to do as a result of trying to fix the first list, i don’t have the time these days and its really getting me down.
Scary stuff, things like this make you wonder they are worth it sometimes....i have been getting really p!ssed off with the never ending list of things to do, and the list of things you then get to do as a result of trying to fix the first list, i don’t have the time these days and its really getting me down.
Thanks everyone. As far as sourcing the paint is concerned it's not as bad as I feared. Surface & Design can supply 250ml for about £200, and International Colours can do it for about £120.
Still, it's one of those things which I could never have predicted happening. Clutch going. Yep. Wheel buckling. Yep. Engine blowing up. Yep. Petrol seeping out of filler cap causing a rear end respray??!!! Oh well, it's one of those things I suppose.
Still, it's one of those things which I could never have predicted happening. Clutch going. Yep. Wheel buckling. Yep. Engine blowing up. Yep. Petrol seeping out of filler cap causing a rear end respray??!!! Oh well, it's one of those things I suppose.
Cockey said:
Thanks everyone. As far as sourcing the paint is concerned it's not as bad as I feared. Surface & Design can supply 250ml for about £200, and International Colours can do it for about £120.
Still, it's one of those things which I could never have predicted happening. Clutch going. Yep. Wheel buckling. Yep. Engine blowing up. Yep. Petrol seeping out of filler cap causing a rear end respray??!!! Oh well, it's one of those things I suppose.
I know how you feel, you just prompted a rant Still, it's one of those things which I could never have predicted happening. Clutch going. Yep. Wheel buckling. Yep. Engine blowing up. Yep. Petrol seeping out of filler cap causing a rear end respray??!!! Oh well, it's one of those things I suppose.
see my other thread...Robertjp said:
Really gutted for you mate, i hope you get it fixed with minimal fuss.
Scary stuff, things like this make you wonder they are worth it sometimes....i have been getting really p!ssed off with the never ending list of things to do, and the list of things you then get to do as a result of trying to fix the first list, i don’t have the time these days and its really getting me down.
Rob, i dont think you can blame the car for a dodgy paint job.........BUT i do understand what you are saying...TVRs dont you just love them Scary stuff, things like this make you wonder they are worth it sometimes....i have been getting really p!ssed off with the never ending list of things to do, and the list of things you then get to do as a result of trying to fix the first list, i don’t have the time these days and its really getting me down.
TOV!E said:
Rob, i dont think you can blame the car for a dodgy paint job.........BUT i do understand what you are saying...TVRs dont you just love them
Your right, cant blame the car, but the propensity for things to go wrong is much higher than is tolerable at the moment!!!!!! You would, for example, make an assumption that new paint is a good thing if done well....whereas this is very very bad!!!!!
OP sorry to see the damage, hope you get it sorted soon. I have heard this one before same situation filling up and then leaving the car standing after a short journey ,was it parked in the sun all day? This can be due to the fuel tank breather pipe being kinked and not allow the system to vent via the carbon canister. Could have happened before if this area has already been re-painted.
NCE 61 said:
OP sorry to see the damage, hope you get it sorted soon. I have heard this one before same situation filling up and then leaving the car standing after a short journey ,was it parked in the sun all day? This can be due to the fuel tank breather pipe being kinked and not allow the system to vent via the carbon canister. Could have happened before if this area has already been re-painted.
What symptoms indicate a blocked / kinked fuel vent pipe? I ALWAYS get pressure release when i open my tank to fill up, never brim but always stop when the fluid level shuts off the pump...makes me think that maybe my breather pipe not working....
As I drove away the fuel gauge read 55L. Like I said, I stopped as soon as the filler cut out which according to mytuscan.co.uk is what to do.
"Based on £1.05p per litre for unleaded petrol in the UK, the Tuscan's 55 litre fuel tank would cost around £57 to fill up from an empty tank.
Make sure you don't overfill, and when the fuel pump 'clicks' off at the petrols tation, don't continue filling to the brim. It can cause the ECU to perceive fuel starvation and the engine can cut out or not start."
Therefore I must have a problem elsewhere. Perhaps a kinked hose as mentioned above...
"Based on £1.05p per litre for unleaded petrol in the UK, the Tuscan's 55 litre fuel tank would cost around £57 to fill up from an empty tank.
Make sure you don't overfill, and when the fuel pump 'clicks' off at the petrols tation, don't continue filling to the brim. It can cause the ECU to perceive fuel starvation and the engine can cut out or not start."
Therefore I must have a problem elsewhere. Perhaps a kinked hose as mentioned above...
Feel so bad for you
I know my tank takes 50L so fill to just below that really. I always stop for a second or so after every 10L has been pumped in too.
It's a pain in the arse but seeing threads like this makes it worth it.
Thanks for sharing OP, hope you get it sorted ASAP.
Edited by Diablos-666 on Friday 30th March 14:13
Robertjp said:
What symptoms indicate a blocked / kinked fuel vent pipe?
I ALWAYS get pressure release when i open my tank to fill up, never brim but always stop when the fluid level shuts off the pump...makes me think that maybe my breather pipe not working....
Possibly the same issue as the OP, should be checked at service time.I ALWAYS get pressure release when i open my tank to fill up, never brim but always stop when the fluid level shuts off the pump...makes me think that maybe my breather pipe not working....
I used to get some pressure release when opening the fuel cap however after having the car serviced at STR8SIX last year they found the carbon canister was blocked, (possibly never checked during previous services) and now cleaned out have virtually no pressure release when removing the filler cap.
I had an issue last year on my wedge, just filled up, back on the highway on the way to "Out of the Woodwork" show in the US. Came upon an accident on the highway, road was stopped for some time on a banked curve. Realized fuel was gushing down the side of the car, took the cap off for a river of petrol. Rocked the car a bit to get excess out, and poured bottled water down the side (a truck driver gave me extra water to help).
In the end the paint bubbled up in the filler area, but thankfully no real visible damage with the flap closed. Yours is shocking how bad it went... With the damage yours has I would have needed to find a private place so nobody would see me cry.
heart breaking, good luck with the respray work.
In the end the paint bubbled up in the filler area, but thankfully no real visible damage with the flap closed. Yours is shocking how bad it went... With the damage yours has I would have needed to find a private place so nobody would see me cry.
heart breaking, good luck with the respray work.
I've lost count of the number of times I've splashed petrol due to the kickback from the nozzle when the flow gets too high... fortunately never suffered from that awful blistering you've suffered from, as T350/Sag filler is outside so wipe clean straight away...
Note to self: Cascade Indigo - very expensive - be more careful !!
Hope it gets sorted ok.
Regards.
Note to self: Cascade Indigo - very expensive - be more careful !!
Hope it gets sorted ok.
Regards.
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