Settle an argument putting fuel in the car

[BoredZelda]

What is the correct way to fill the car up?

1 - fill it til it clicks, or you get bored.

OR

2 - fill it til the £ is a round number. Go to the next round number of you go over.

A lot of you must only drive short distances, and live in areas with plentiful petrol stations.

I put in the maximum possible. I'm fortunate that I can afford to do that, I know - there have been times when this was not always possible.
But I hate filling up the car with petrol so my aim is to do it as infrequently as I can.
I wish there were still petrol-pump attendants!

Fill to the click but it's not 100% full so I then go to the nearest £.

Plug in at the socket. Switch socket on. EVs ftw!

Until I get bored. I rarely fill it completely, only if going on a long journey. I do it to a round number occasionally though, but usually litres rather than pounds

@PerciphonePuma

I don't ever fill up past three quarter point at the absolute most, as the weight of all that fuel, reduces the fuel economy. Imagine if you have a 50 litre tank - that's the weight of 25 x 2 litre bottles of coke (minus the relatively light weight of the actual bottles of course). That's like carrying an extra child round with you. 50 litres of fuel weighs roughly 36kgs in weight...

Yes the difference may be minimal but over time you'll notice a difference. I used to fill right up to the clicks and couldn't understand why that first half of the tank kept going so much faster than the second half....!

Other important factors would be how long you expected the petrol to last and how big the tank is.

I can easily use a full tank of petrol in a day so the marginal weight saving would be cancelled out with the extra stopping and starting and extra distance in and out of the petrol station.

I've driven small cars with a 35 litre tank or ones that hold nearly twice that.

Obviously the bigger car costs more to fill and lasts longer, so if you don't drive far, it could take weeks or even months to get through a full tank so less worth it to fill up especially if you can't afford to keep some of your money as fuel like that.

Until it clicks but if it's on an odd number I'll pull the nozzle out a bit and try and round it up to at least the nearest 10 but preferably the nearest £ 😆

@ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba

neither. you keep filling it despite the approximate 38753 clicks because there's a problem nobody seems to be able to fix. The rage it induces lasts all day so typically that's my coffee free day

Did you post about this recently or are there more of you with this issue? 😆

Overfilling your car is meant to be damaging
www.freep.com/story/life/2015/06/28/dont-top-off-gas-tank-environment/29269833/

By topping your fuel tank off, it can either overwhelm your evaporative system and break something or cause a hazardous leak by the excess pressure in the system," says Ed Nemphos, owner of Brentwood Automotive in Baltimore, who adds that gas needs extra room to expand in the tank.

Usually put either £20 or £30 in, there's a button on the pump so it clicks and stops when it gets there. Round number every time.

@Sprogonthetyne

Usually put either £20 or £30 in, there's a button on the pump so it clicks and stops when it gets there. Round number every time.

There’s a button on the pump?

There is at the pumps I go to, at tesco, but I think it's standard. There's a few denominations 5/10/50, and you press them until it shows the amount you want on the display (eg. Press 10 3 times for £30). Until I discovered them I always ended up putting in more then I wanted trying to hit a round number.

Ooh I didn't know you could select an amount, but I always do it until it clicks as I'm lazy and means I don't have to fill the car so often.

Fill it until it clicks on pay day and if I need to top up later in the month I'll just put £20 in and try and get it on £20.

I don't think the 'select an amount' pumps are common in the UK, I don't remember ever seeing one.

I have seen them in Spain and Malta though. Useful if you want an exact amount of fuel, less so if you have a hire car you need to return full and it's an unmanned auto station and you can't work out how to make it do that. We just had to put 10 Euro in an hope it was enough, which it was.

Germany has select amount pumps. It was very useful 10 years ago when getting the forces 'rationed fuel as our tokens came in certain amounts.

(Fuel rations in Germany for British forces... we got a certain amount tax free, as well as some other items, including coffee bizarrely).

I don't think the 'select an amount' pumps are common in the UK, I don't remember ever seeing one.

Have you tried Tesco?

@coogee

I don't think the 'select an amount' pumps are common in the UK, I don't remember ever seeing one.

Have you tried Tesco?

Ah, I live in a part of the country strangely overlooked by Tesco petrol stations. I know where a few are, all around 10 miles away, in places I rarely go to. Might need to go and check them out now though!

My nearest Tesco petrol station is over 6 miles away. My nearest petrol station is half a mile away.

@Sprogonthetyne

Usually put either £20 or £30 in, there's a button on the pump so it clicks and stops when it gets there. Round number every time.

I’ve only ever come across these in France (and only twice). I wish they were more common.

Another one who has several other options closer than Tesco, Asda Sainsbury's Morrisons and shell etc. I probably haven't bought Tesco petrol in years.

Usually until I get bored, though our mileage is around 7,000 a year so a little goes a long way

And if I do go by the machine it has to be in round litres. I know it doesn't make a jot of difference

Until it clicks then i'll squeeze a bit more until the next whole number..having it on a random number just annoys me

@coogee

I don't think the 'select an amount' pumps are common in the UK, I don't remember ever seeing one.

Have you tried Tesco?

I last used a Tesco fuel station about a month ago. No button to select the amount … the station was completely refurbished just before the first lockdown and has fancy new pumps, we can choose to pay at pump or the kiosk but definitely can’t choose a fixed amount.

2!