Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting 1-Hour To Fill Tank???

Only problem is my Mystique has 108,xxx miles. I don't mind taking the time to fix it myself if it can be done by the average weekend mechanic in a garage with a floor jack. Just didn't want to get halfway into something and have to put it back together.

my car began doing that as soon as it got hot. its the heat. the dealer explained it to me. the material the fuel filler pipe is made out of is the wrong plastic. it swells too much when hot, causing a flap (intended to prevent fuel leakage in event of a rollover) to stick up. This makes the passage to the tank much smaller and causes teh gas to back up, stopping the pump. they fixed it in less than 1 day. this recall doesnt affect all 98.5s though. when i asked they said its just random, by VIN number. now that my fuel filler is made of a better material i have no problems at the pump.

Glad your dealer fixed it, but it is not the heat! I lived in AZ with both of my contours that I owned and it is the oxygenated fuels. As soon as the proper valve was put in I never had another issue, summer or winter. Just remember that the oxygenation is changed every year at the end of spring and at the beginning of winter because of the issues it has with volatility during summer. How coincidental that you noticed it at that time.

Either way the recall program is great and I advise anyone who can get it done to do it.
BTW, the 1995 systems were pre-obd2, or an OBD1 with extras. I went through this problem with a Ford rep, not the dealer and that is how I know the problem and the eventual solution.
By the way, many times you can go to the dealer and ask them to petition Ford to fix your car under the recall even though you are 8k miles over. Many times when the mileage is close Ford will authorize the dealer to make the repair. It doesn't hurt to try.

maybe it affects different systems differently, but with my system i found that it would work fine or close to it if my car had not run that day or if i bought gas late at night or early in the morning. that week was the hottest we had this year and if i had been driving my car(first time it happened was on a 2 hour drive) or if it was the middle of the day it would act up. this is a recall so if you do have the problem your warrantee shouldnt matter. i am the second owner and ford didnt care, but dont just get it done if you dont have the problem. since mine was done my gas gauge has had much more slack(movement with acceleration or hills) and i here an intermittent rattle coming from the rear of my car. i think its a heat shield. ford service departments suck

how can this be fixed myself? my warrany is over, ill just see about a junkyard part... its [censored] when i have a clerk coming out saying im gunna top it off...

Try taking a piece of garden hose, and insert the hose into the tank as far as it will go. Pretend you are stealing gas from a tank that is nearly empty. My contour had the slow-fill problem about a year ago, and the garden hose trick solved the problem. At least, it hasn't been a problem for several months.

I had this on my 98 E0 a couple of years ago. My dealer fixed it, but it took two visits.

The mistake I made was picking up the car at closing time, and then filling the tank. The gas drained out of the top of the tank as they didn't get the filler neck in right.
So I drove back to the dealer and let it leak gas outside their service department and came back the next day with the keys. When I picked it up that afternoon the service manager was with me as I went across the street to fill the tank.


TB

All these symptoms you describe, all of you, are caused by this issue.

- slow filling,
- different when cold/hot
The rubber on the valve still expands and contracts due to heat.
- Able to put the filler nozzle in different positions and get it to go into the tank faster.
That is because certain positions from the filler nozzle cause the fuel to swirl as it goes down and other positions cause it to be more turbulent. It is the turbulence that shuts off the pump as that is how it detects the tank getting full.

Some cars take a long time for this to develop and it gets progressively worse. In the beginning it may only take filling at medium rate to get the fuel to go in, or change the angle on the nozzle. As it gets worse it will be as bad as the 1 hour fillup.

Get a part out of the junkyard at your own risk. I'd go to the dealer and get the correct updated part so I knew it wouldn't happen again.

.....turn the nozzle 90*