Our 2005 Ford Escape Limited has always been difficult to fill, as the gas pump nozzle tends to kick off early, sometimes on any setting. We paid the Dealer to fix it, he put in a new filler pipe and it still doesn't work any better. Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be? The Dealer says he did the TSB (tech service bulletin), that's all he can do.

 

I had a similar problem with my 2005 Ford Freestar. When filling the gas tank the pump would kick off many times and sometimes gas would splash back out. I did some research and found this to be a common problem with Fords as well as other makers and everything pointed to the charcoal EVAP canister that vents the gas tank to an outlet/solenoid vent valve just above the filler tube. I checked all the lines to make sure that there were no blockages and took off the canister. When I blew through the canister, air would pass through but it seemed restricted so I plugged one end and used compressed air to pressurize the canister and then let the air blow back out. I did this a number of times on each end and then tried to blow air through it again and the air moved a lot more freely. I only used about 10 to 15 psi for reference and this was enough. Any more might not be safe as the canister is built to handle vacuum not pressure.

I put it back on the van and it fixed the problem and I haven't had any issues with filling the tank since. It's been almost a year now and it is still working fine. One of the articles I read recommended that you shouldn't try to top off your tank when full after the gas pump kicks off once as this may force some liquid gas into the vent lines and into the canister which ends up plugging the charcoal canister with liquid, not just air/vapour that is exiting the tank as it is filled with gas. Taking off the canister wasn't too difficult but you can access the hoses/ends of the canister without taking it off if you jack up the car & use jack stands/use ramps and crawl underneath. However, just be careful as there isn't a lot of room underneath and always wear safety glasses when dealing with compressed air.
I hope that this helps as once fixed, no more stress at the pumps, except with gas prices!

 

Thank you for sharing that info with us. Let's hope the message sinks in because there are a lot of folks out there with this vehicle problem and they need to know , "When the tank is full and the pump shuts off, Stop adding fuel" !!