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brutisbus Samba Member
Joined: April 29, 2014 Posts: 36 Location: Bellingham WA.
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Posted: Fri May 01, 2015 5:34 pm Post subject: Syncro fuel top off problem |
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My 90 Syncro has about 200K on it and in the the last 20K or so it's really hard to fully fill the last couple of gallons without tripping the gas pump sensor that the tank is full. To fill it I have to be very patient and reduce the flow to almost nothing, easily accepts another 2 gallons this way but not with normal flow. Ideas? |
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zeohsix Samba Member
Joined: August 31, 2012 Posts: 501 Location: United States
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Posted: Fri May 01, 2015 6:00 pm Post subject: |
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I suspect you have problems with vapor vent system or charcoal canister, time to drop the tank and rebuild the system if your @ 200K. _________________ I'm Cheap! I'll build that Syncro Westy myself and save money but, my labor is "FREE" especially if I ever go to sell it! One thing is I will know the quality of the parts and labor that went into the build and rest better when I'm actually driving said Westy down the road! |
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T3 Pilot Samba Member
Joined: January 10, 2011 Posts: 1507 Location: Deep South of the Great White North
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mrshrimp Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2013 Posts: 373 Location: Portland
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2015 9:26 am Post subject: |
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I have always had this problem with my syncro, have to slowly fill aka top off the last few gallons. I had my engine out the last few months and so decided to drop the gas tank. Went through the whole system, replaced vent plugs on top of tank, new filler neck hose (yes the original had a small kink,) and new filler vent hose. Most of this was done as proactive measure for reliability not really the fill issue. But in the end it didnt make a difference for the fill issue. What I have noticed the most is it depends on the gas station and the style of nozzle they have. Some nozzles, even at there slowest setting, are to fast and the tank cant vent properly the last few gallons, and must be topped off. The other day the gas attendent (cant pump your own gas in oregon) put the nozzle in sideways and the van filled all the way up, must have help the venting. Some new nozzles have a rubber tube/seal to prevent back spray. But this prevents nozzle from going very far into the filler neck, and im guessing the seal prevents air venting. These seem to be the worst.
When I dropped the tank I also noticed that the filler tube does not enter the tank from the top, it enters from the side, about 9/10 the way up the tank. So when the tank is ~90% full the gas is at the same level at where its enters the tank from the filler tube, maybe causing it to back fill up the filler tube more easily. Cant say this is true just a theory but now that I have gone through everything and nothing is fixed I think this is the real issue, a design issue.
Older, slower nozzles set parallel to the van fill the best with my van. |
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vw4wd Samba Member
Joined: April 03, 2011 Posts: 161 Location: Somerset, UK
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2015 9:36 am Post subject: |
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I have also had this slow fill issue on several syncros.
I look to park at the pump with the right rear corner high if possible. By that I mean with the van nose down and leaning if left. This tends to bring the air in the tank towards the fill pipe entry point and help it escape. _________________ Garyd
1990 Transporter syncro camper with 2 litre AGG 'GTi' engine |
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outcaststudios Samba Member
Joined: February 09, 2015 Posts: 1732 Location: Maine
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2015 10:10 am Post subject: |
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the first vanagon i ever bought i merrily went to the gas station to fill it with its first tank of gas i filled for a while and kept pumping ...hey what's that running water sound? anyways my take on this is that the tanks arent the issue most of my older cars i have to manually hold back the rubber sleeve to activat e the pump and then i have to sort of 'shoot' it into the tank so as not to trip[ the pump shut off,i guess they have pressure sensors these days that are really finely activated and in the old days this wasnt the case. _________________ '88Doka JX td
'69 westy
(rip)couple bugs
(rip)three type III"s
(rip) '81 vanagon
a bunch of french stuff,and 9 motorcycles.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2573791 |
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syncrodoka Samba Member
Joined: December 27, 2005 Posts: 12005 Location: Santa Cruz, CA
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2015 10:21 am Post subject: |
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I had a filler neck seal leak at the gas tank that I had to fix so I also had to take out the filler and the rubber hose. The rubber hose looked a lot like the one in the link above with a restrictive kink in the middle.
I replaced the hose with the aftermarket hose from VC http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/page_2075_1389/aftermarket_syncro_filler_neck_hose.html
I put 5 gallons of fuel into the tank to get to the gas station and it effortlessly added the other 13 gallons to the tank and self shut off with the van on level ground. I assume that the rollover valves are in good shape but that hose was definitely not in good shape and in need of replacement.
FWIW I cleaned the body opening for the rubber hose well and sprayed silicone spray down there prior to installing it to slide it in easier as it is a little snug. |
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brutisbus Samba Member
Joined: April 29, 2014 Posts: 36 Location: Bellingham WA.
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2015 10:54 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for links and feedback. Ugh, looking at the landscape of a Syncro tank drop, not appealing. Will take a gander at the low hanging fruit and see.
Had a weird thing happen 12 years ago when I first started exploring the back roads of the desert SW. After about 10 miles of washboard mining roads my gas gauge dramatically dropped 1/4 leaving me to wonder about whether I would have enough to make it the 70 miles to the next paved road. I stopped to check for leaks etc... I heard a slight squealing from the gas cap and when I removed it there was a great relief of vacuum. Started it back up and the gas level was back to normal. I thought geeze was the vacuum build up in the tank so bad to cause it to collapse enough to drop the gauge 1/4?!! The van continued to do this on this trip when I was off road, and I would periodically stop and relieve the vacuum. I have been returning once or twice a year to the SW on these off road adventures since then and this vacuum thing has not recurred, go figure. |
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