One of your greatest joy as a car owner is filling up your car's fuel tank at a gas station. When you drive the car, it feels different because you are looking at the fuel gauge needle sitting at the highest point and that is very soothing. You keep accelerating without any bother until the fuel level drops by one bar/level. You know the mental stress that comes with driving on a low fuel level right? You need to know how farther your car can drive on a low fuel level to avoid being stranded on the road and that is surely stressful

Filling your car's fuel tank to the brim actually doesn't do any good to your car, sorry to disappoint you. Driving on low fuel isn't good either because. Today, you will understand why filling up your car's gas tank to the brim is very bad for your car and the best level to keep the fuel at all times. Learning how to calculate your fuel consumption is also a knowledge that would help you plan your car trip adequately.  

Here is why filling up your fuel tank to the brim is bad:

1. Escape of vapor needed by the car's engine

Have you noticed that when you store gasoline/diesel in a plastic container that is airtight, gas escapes the moment you open up the container and you hear the sound as it leaves the container? That gas is vapor from the fuel. 

When you fill-up your car's fuel tank to the brim, the vapor produced by the fuel escapes into the atmosphere because there is no space for it to settle. This vapor is needed for proper combustion process in your car's engine. The vapor travels to the car's engine along with the fuel through the pipes from the working process of the fuel pump.

Also, when this vapor evaporates into the atmosphere it mixes with the air around the car and even enters the cabin of the car, and you as the driver or passenger inhales it.   

2. Too much pressure on the fuel tank

I will also use a plastic container example here because it best explains this hazard. If you store 25 liters of gasoline in a 25-liter container then you expose it to heat, the container soon begins to expand in size. This expansion is a result of the pressure generated by the reaction of heat and gasoline.

Most cars today use a plastic fuel tank to avoid corrosion of fuel. In Nigeria, you will agree with me that a lot of afternoons are always hot and when you touch the body of cars you also feel this heat.

This explosion was caused by an over-pressurized fuel tank 

This heat gets to the fuel tank also and if the fuel in the tank is filled up to the brim, the fuel tank begins to expand due to this pressure. This is very hazardous cause it can burst the tank open if it is too much or at least, it would weaken your fuel tank.

3. It can ruin the charcoal canister

Because the vapor that the fuel in our gas tanks produces could be excess sometimes, auto manufacturers have been mandated to install canisters as part of the emission control system of the car. The canisters a.k.a known as charcoal canisters store excess vapor that the fuel produces safely and sends it to the engine to aid combustion when it is needed.

This is what the canister looks like  

When there is an absence of vapor in the fuel tank due to a filled up level, the canister is forced to work with liquid fuel and this destroys the canister.

4. It can ruin your paint and the ecosystem

When a fuel attendant fills your fuel tank to the brim, there is a high probability that fuel will spill because the attendant cannot accurately predict when the tank gets filled up. Nigerians use the phrase "fill-up" so they literally overfill your fuel tank.

The spillage causes two things; firstly, it spills on your car's body and it reacts with the paint of the car. Trust me, the reaction is very hazardous to your paint and if it is a car that has a vinyl wrap it weakens it. The wrap starts to swell at that point because the fuel has reacted with the adhesive between the car's body and the wrap. 

Gasoline spilled from that fuel tank 

Secondly, the fuel can spill on the floor and this is a microform of oil spillage that is very bad to the environment.

Conclusion

Always try your best to fill your tank to a maximum of 92% capacity. Always tell the fuel attendant to stop filling the tank once it feels like it is getting full. This keeps your car's fuel line at low risk all the time. NAIJAUTO.COM is always ready to help you tackle all the problems that arise from any automobile related activity.

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