In a recent Honest John column, someone complained that they often had to queue in filling stations because they did not have a central fuel filler cap. For their information, pump hoses are long enough to reach either side of a car with careful parking - some of them even unreel from the console.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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It's the other people who queue to enter because their favourite pump is in use? They seem to do this everywhere, and give you the evil eye if you squeeze past them to an empty pump, or reverse up to a free one so that the filler is on the pump side. So many dumb people can afford cars these days, we all have to suffer.
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Tesco petrol station in Telford won't let you reverse up to pumps because of (quote) "Health and Safety reasons"
Apparently they don't believe drivers are capable of performing this manouvre without crashing...
The spotty kid in the kiosk gets very excited whenever someone does this, as he gets to use his massive power of authority to refuse to activate the pump!!!
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MoneyMart
Current car: 55-reg Audi A4 2.5 V6TDi Quattro flappy-paddle
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I think what they're really saying is "it's a bit easier for you to drive off withut paying - but if we said as much you might be slightly offended and the world would end and so it's eaier for us to come up with this H&S gibberish"
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Apologies for the sloppiness in that posting.
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It's so funny you should mention that.
I used to work at Morrisons as a general lackey and every Saturday night after work, went to fill up. Get there one night and it's really busy and so, only one pump left. Having a white car, I didn't want to mark the paintwork by stretching the pump over so I reversed in and started putting the petrol in. Get to the counter and the bloke said;
"If you do that again, I won't serve you". So I think....what have I done? Dropped litter? Smoked at the pump? Put diesel in? Noooo.
So I said - "Do what again?"
Gruff attendant - "Reverse in. You're never ever allowed to do that."
When asked why, he just said they're the rules.
I always thought it was something to do with the CCTV not getting a reading on the plate but the way it was laid out it would have captured my rear plate.
"Health and Safety" sounds about right.
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Tesco petrol station in Telford won't let you reverse up to pumps because of (quote) "Health and Safety reasons" Apparently they don't believe drivers are capable of performing this manouvre without crashing...
Considering the increasingly poor rear visibility of so many new cars, I think they have a point.
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I will jolly well make it my business to reverse into parking bays at Tesco in future. Not only that, but I will reverse to a pump, pull handbrake on, spin the wheel and swivel so I am facing the way I was reversing!
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Is there a scientific/safety reason why car manufacturers don't put a filler on each side of the car. Or is it just that it might cost a few extra quid?
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AngryJonny (was E34kid)
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Probably because it simply isn't necessary, as pointed out above.
Having said that, I've come across a few pumps with a piece of string (properly designed, you understand) going from the pump to the pipe. This inhibits the distance you can reach with the nozzle, but a gentle tug and it comes away... ;-)
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Jaguar XJ12 has a fuel filler on both sides; mind you, they do go to separate tanks!
I seem to remember that many of the older cars, e.g. Vauxhall Viva and Mk1 Cortina had fuel filler on the rear panel, so making it much easier to fill up from pumps on either side.
Something that could be reintroduced, perhaps?
However, the most unusual fuel filler was the Hillman Imp's. Fuel cap was under the bonnet!
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Aston Vantage has filler caps on both sides, you have to open them both though, air rushes out one side as you fill the other. It also does about 200 miles on £65 of petrol.
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I seem to remember that many of the older cars, e.g. Vauxhall Viva and Mk1 Cortina had fuel filler on the rear panel, so making it much easier to fill up from pumps on either side. Something that could be reintroduced, perhaps?
IIRC someone recently stated in another thread....
Having the filler on the side reduces the risks re fuel leakage from a rear end shunt. So no chance of a rear filler coming back.
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Simca 1301/1501 fuel filler cap was behind the numberplate. My dad had one in 1978 and when he bought it couldn't find the filler cap for ages...
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IMO its good to have the filler pipe as high up as possible, on a 2 door Metro it was low down at wheelarch level. My dad once brimmed the tank on a cold night, but when I drove it the next day it was warm and sunny.
When I got back to the Metro, parked in the sun, it was merrily piddling petrol out through the tank breather tube, because the fuel had expanded so much. When I took off the filler cap, it popped off under pressure and a good mug-full of petrol glugged out.
A good lesson in why not to overfill the fuel tank!..
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In the pre self service era, I used to work the pumps at a petrol station for a Saturday job. At busy times it could be chaos with people jamming the whole setup by stopping at the nearest available pump rather than driving through to the end of the line.
The manager would stand in the forecourt directing cars to available pumps. He used to comment that the "public" were like sheep and needed to be herded for their own good.
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IanS
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"Simca 1301/1501 fuel filler cap was behind the numberplate."
The filler for 60's Fords such as the Corsair and Zephyr was behind the number plate.
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IanS
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Was it the Humber hawk(60's)where the reflector in the rear light assy.was the filler cap as well?-you unscrewed it-more than a few of them got the other reflector pulled off and the boot filled with fuel.
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Didn't one of the Triumph's (TR6??) have a central filler behind the rear screen?
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Yup. So did the Mark IV Spitfire.
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IanS
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Are the people who reverse their cars to be on the "correct" side of the pump the same people who throw a huge spanner in the works when attempting to leave by driving against the flow ?
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Could these people not just reverse back out again, thus removing the problem?
I didn't know the old Fords had numberplate filler caps! It must have been fashionable for a while. Anyone seen a Simca 1301/1501 on the road in the last ten years? Think they're all dead now...
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The Ford number plates were sprung to make them stay upright so you had to jam the filler cap in the hinge or stand there holding the plate down.
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Same for the Simca as I recall. Although I was only 8 when my family sold it, so I may not be right. At the time, as we had just moved and were skint, we replaced the 76 P 1501 with a 1972 Cortina 1300. I was devastated at the time, and wouldn't let them take me to school, but I'd sell my kidneys to get a Coke Bottle 'Tina now!
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Could these people not just reverse back out again, thus removing the problem?
These people are semi blocked in by people queuing in the other direction and are then forced to edge out the exit generally used for driving in and then attempt to turn right onto a busy road edging past the line of cars waiting to get in. To be that oblivious of your surroundings requires a special kind of mindset
I have not had a good day so far
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Simca 1301/1501 fuel filler cap was behind the numberplate. My dad had one in 1978 and when he bought it couldn't find the filler cap for ages...
Sorry to take this off subject, but it reminded me of my dad's old 1966 Simca estate which had a winder on the back hatch to wind down the window. Great for our travelling Alsatian in hot weather!
Don't recall where the fuel cap was!
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For their information, pump hoses are long enough to reach either side of a car...
A colleague, who used to be a petrol station attendant in his youth, told me that it's illegal to take the hose to the wrong side of the car. He didn't seem to know why.
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Illegal?! As in you could go to court for it?
Interesting.
I do it all the time, never been stopped..
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"Illegal" in the Health and Safety sense on sites with limited space? If you do a risk assessment for dozy customers sticking their bumss out into moving traffic while loading inflammable liquid you can see why the control might be to forbid the practice.
Having said that I've been to at least one site that makes a virtue of the hoses being overlength to facilitate fuelling on either side of the car. But perhaps it has wide aisles as well
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My local Tesco Extra has aisles just wide enough to take two vehicles abreast with space to open a door alongside another car.
The fuel hoses reach both sides of a vehicle if lined up correctly - I always prefer to fill from the side opposite the pump to ensure I get all the fuel I pay for on a visit. It also means that those who keep the hose in a loop whilst filling up contribute a little fuel to me...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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It also means that those who keep the hose in a loop whilst filling up contribute a little fuel to me...:-)
Ah - but what about those who lift the loop and shake it all about?
Oz (as was)
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They get petrol on their shoes. With the right sort of shoes this can result in the sole coming adrift.
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I always prefer to fill from the side opposite the pump to ensure I get all the fuel I pay for on a visit. It also means that those who keep the hose in a loop whilst filling up contribute a little fuel to me...:-)
WHAT? HOW?
The valve that allows the fuel to flow and then shuts it off is in the nozzle not the pump machine!
If it worked how you think then there would be all these hundereds of thousands of fuel pump pipes filled with fuel, open just waiting to be ignited.
Think about it!!
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In my garage days, the pump could be preset to deliver the customers 4 gallons of whatever. This meant that we could fill 2 or 3 cars at a time.
Only snag was if their tank was full before the 4 gallons had been delivered - as the auto shut off on some of our pumps was unreliable!
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IanS
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But you do often get a mouthful of petrol when you present the nozzle, especially if upside down when you stretch the hose across.
Obviously I don't know if it's actually a mouthful.
Obviously I'm having a really bad day at work to be sitting here posting this tripe on this thread.
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I am still trying to figure why not just go to another less busy filling station, unless you are out in the sticks somewhere, but then I imagine that petrol stations in the sticks don't get busy either.
I don't think I have ever sat in my car waiting for a free pump. If all are in use, drive on to the next garage. Surely I can't be the only one who thinks of doing that.
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>>is in the nozzle not the pump machine! >>
VVhundereds of thousands of fuel pump pipes filled with fuel, open just waiting to be ignited.>>
Your explanation seems amiss. The nozzle is a long way from the pump - the pipe must be full to provide the fuel supply. If you shut the nozzle then there is/must be some fuel remaining in the pipe, especially if it was previously used with a loop.
>>Think about it!!>>
I have. That's why I get a bit of extra petrol. If I don't hold the nozzle above the level of the pipe whilst I stretch it to the other side of the car, I'd get petrol on my car or clothes.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I haven't yet found a fuel station where the pipes are that short that it's been impossible to fill up regardless of which side the filler cap is on.
The amount of people I see unnecessarily queing up just because they're waiting for a pump to become vacant that's on the same side as their filler cap.
And for all those people out there who are afraid that the pipe will scratch their paintwork, I've found there's still plenty of spare pipe available to hold away from the car whilst filling up.
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Your explanation seems amiss. The nozzle is a long way from the pump - the pipe must be full to provide the fuel supply. If you shut the nozzle then there is/must be some fuel remaining in the pipe, especially if it was previously used with a loop. >>Think about it!!>> I have. That's why I get a bit of extra petrol. If I don't hold the nozzle above the level of the pipe whilst I stretch it to the other side of the car, I'd get petrol on my car or clothes.
No you don't, when you have finished filling the car and release the trigger the petrol stops flowing, so you get no more that someone using that pump with a loop in the pipe.
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Have a look at this story of petrol,or gas,station hassle.
www.aussieinamerica.com/differences/gas.htm
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If you wanted to be really perverse, where there are nozzles on both sides of the pump you could use the nozzle from the other side of the pump!
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L\'escargot.
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In the 80's I was working Liverpool at the time of the Toxteth riots and this was the source of supply for a lot of the petrol bombs. You'd see wee scallys running onto the forecourts with milk bottles, stick the nozzle in and work the trigger and out would come a "mouthful" (allegedly) of four star. It got such that in certain areas there were security guards (bouncers) at the pumps
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No you don't, when you have finished filling the car and release the trigger the petrol stops flowing, so you get no more that someone using that pump with a loop in the pipe.
But if the last person used it with a loop and then left it looped, there will be petrol lying in the loop. You then have the choice of tipping it over your shoes or pouring it into your own tank.
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Working from the title of this thread ,i recently had an argument at a petrol station in Petersfield.
The whole place has just been rebuilt with six pumps instead of four and now that the pumps are closer to the road cars all that it takes is two cars to be queing for the pumps to block the forecourt and then this backs up into the road.
There is an exit from a small housing estate right next to the garage and people leaving here get blocked in.
When you eventually get your fuel you find three tills and only one person serving and two others standing around with vacant expressions.
I lost my temper and asked why was there only one till working to which the chap replied that the queue had only just formed, i replied that that was rubbish, he then explained that it was the fault of the petrol for being so cheap.
I do not go there any more.
(it was not any cheaper than the garage a mile down the road).
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