[one_big_holiday]

Howdy,

Regarding my 03 EVW (115k mi.): I'm experiencing persistent SLOW refills at the pump. Tank accepts ~4 gallons according to normal refill behavior; then, I'll get maybe 0.5 gallons before the auto shut-off kicks the pump handle. This persists for the remaining fill of the tank making it difficult to know when to actually stop pumping (in addition to being frustratingly slow).

In the past 3k miles, I've replaced the N80 valve, and I've had the van checked for this problem by a VW shop (Indian Peaks, Boulder CO -- which I do recommend for anyone in the area). There doesn't seem to be any glaring, contributing factors. FWIW, I bought this van from a fellow in Oregon (Dec. 2017), perhaps the final remaining state in which drivers do NOT pump their own gas (a station attendant does), and so I was not made aware of this issue at the time of purchase.

ANY help/pointers/theories are greatly appreciated.

[markcm]

Howdy,

Regarding my 03 EVW (115k mi.): I'm experiencing persistent SLOW refills at the pump. Tank accepts ~4 gallons according to normal refill behavior; then, I'll get maybe 0.5 gallons before the auto shut-off kicks the pump handle. This persists for the remaining fill of the tank making it difficult to know when to actually stop pumping (in addition to being frustratingly slow).

In the past 3k miles, I've replaced the N80 valve, and I've had the van checked for this problem by a VW shop (Indian Peaks, Boulder CO -- which I do recommend for anyone in the area). There doesn't seem to be any glaring, contributing factors. FWIW, I bought this van from a fellow in Oregon (Dec. 2017), perhaps the final remaining state in which drivers do NOT pump their own gas (a station attendant does), and so I was not made aware of this issue at the time of purchase.

ANY help/pointers/theories are greatly appreciated.

I bought my 2001 from oregon and it had records of repeat issues with the evaporative system (charcoal canister and N80 valve). During a road trip, we stopped to fuel in Oregon and I asked the attendant to put in a specified amount of fuel fearing an issue, I think Oregon claims to be trained to prevent overfilling tanks and damaging evaporative systems (phhtt). The attendant continued to fill, and over fill my tank while I am sitting in the driver's seat with the window down asking him to stop...

Next fuel stop, out of oregon and guess what, I could not fill my tank up.

I later found the N80 was full of raw gas. I bought a new valve (probably not necessary) and babied the filling process. It eventually self improved; I'm assuming the charcoal in the evaporative canister was saturated with raw gas.

There is some related discussion on the samba forum, some folks have removed the canister (its below the filler, under the van), cut it open and either dried or replaced the charcoal.

[SWSL]

Maybe a little late, but this:

"some folks have removed the canister (its below the filler, under the van), cut it open and either dried or replaced the charcoal."

I pulled the cannister and then drained the fuel out and ran air through it for some time.  I used my little tire pump (what I had on hand while camping.  I think that it was actually a good limited velocity of air over time that worked better.

Been good ever since (1 year- 50 fillups).  I did not actually cut it open and change anything, just dried it out but YMMV !

Steve

[jarroway]

I've had the same experience and have seen similar posts on other forums. When it first happened, I also had an issue where immediately after refill at the pump, the van was very difficult to start which felt like a vapor-lock issue. I was able to start the van by cranking the starter and pumping the gas pedal for some time.

My "fix": I removed the evaporative gas box under the van, drivers side just behind the gas filler. It's about 1' x 1' in size. Inside I found a lot of raw gas, so I drained it and let the box dry, reinstalled and all good. That was 2 years ago. I am having the same problem again and headed out to the driveway to "fix" once more.

I've read this can happen if one tops off the tank upon fillup. The filler line has an overflow line that goes directly into the evap box I'm describing. I don't know how the box was designed to handle that kind of overflow but it doesn't work very well.

Any feedback on this question would be greatly appreciated.

[one_big_holiday]

I'm circling back to my original post to provide an update with the benefit of time and miles since making a repair. In November 2020, the folks at Indian Peaks (Boulder, CO - a quality shop that I recommend) installed a used-but-serviceable carbon canister, and this has completely solved my original problem of a slow gasoline fill.

I hope this helps to inform one route to a fix, if you're in need.