Please note, that this article is out-dated, the proper fix is found here.
So, apparently some re-design in 2005 at Jeep caused this issue. When you fill your TJ’s gas tank all the way up to full, it spits about half a cup of gas at you. Spilling down the side of your Jeep, hitting the fender flare, and maybe your shoes. This is annoying, messy, and over time, costs money!
This past December, I traded my JK in on a 2006 LJ. I’m loving the LJ, but I very soon found out that it’s got this fuel spitting issue. I fill my tak up twice a week on a bad week, and at least once on a good week, so this is a pretty annoying problem for me. There are some ways to cope with it. One is to slow the gas pump down to next to nothing when you think the tank is close to full. The other would be, of course, to not fill the tank all the way up. Both of these work, but I’ve still had it spit at me when I slow the pump down, and I like to put as much gas as possible in when I fill up, so not filling the tank all the way isn’t the best solution to me. So I started hunting for a fix.
I found that others who had this problem back in 05 when their brand new wrangler was rolled off the showroom floor, tried to take their rig’s back to Jeep for service. They got a run-around, and as far as I could find, none of them got it solved. Then in 07, as we know, the JK was rolled out, and didn’t have the problem. So now two years worth of TJ had the issue, and Chrysler just sort of swept it under the rug. I didn’t expect to be able to go to the dealer for a fix.
So I found another way. I found at least two write-ups which describe the very thing I’m about to describe. Apparently some GM vehicles had the same problem around the same time. GM however made it right, and made a replacement gas tank filler host for affected models, that added a little flapper valve in-line. Once the gas tank was ful, and gas started to come back up the filler hose, the flapper valve would engage, and kick off the gas pump. This is the exact solution Chrysler should have come up with, but alas.
The good news is, you can benefit from GM’s good business, and fix your TJ! You’ll need just one part, GM PN:15131046. Its just the filler hose, with the added flapper. It looks like this.
I got mine for under $30 online. Just google the pn, and youll find them all over the place. The new hose isn’t direct-fit, so we need to modify it slightly. The hose is the right diameter at both ends, it’s just too long. The stock filler hose is 7″ long, and the GM hose is 10″. The stock hose also has a bend in it. More on that later.
The whole procedure took me about 2 hours. Your results may vary. This isn’t the first time I’ve monkeyed about with a wrangler’s gas tank. So I knew what I was getting into.
First we need to clear out our work area. You need to get to the area behind the gas filler nozzle. Bear in mind that I’m working on an LJ, a TJ may be slightly different. I pulled out the inner fender well. This is the plastic lining inside of the fender. This is a real pain to remove, but it’s possible. There are 6 or 7 plasic push-in fasteners holding the inner fenderwell in place. Remove those, they’re a pain, I ended up ruining two of them. Once they’re out, some cursing pulling, and scraped knuckles later, I had the rear section of the inner fender removed and pulled away. This was enough to get me at what I needed. The fill spout of the gas tank is behind the bulkhead at the rear of the fender.
Now, we need to get behind the filler. This part is easy, there’s 8 torx screws.
Now that everything is all free’d up, we can get to the real work. Basically, we need to get the filler out of there, and replace the old filler hose with the modified filler hose. This isnt all that hard, just a little cramped. I loosened the lower hose clamp with a 5/16″ socket on a little 1/4″ ratchet.
It’s a pain, and you get about an eighth of a turn in before you need to ratchet.. It’s seriously slow-going. Losen it as much as you can stand, the clamp is held on to the end of the hose, so it’s not going to come completely lose. Once it’s loosened up, we need to attack the other end. There’s a zip tie holding the rear axle vent hose in place. Cut the zip tie off. Then pull off the smaller hose on the filler. That’s the gas tank vent. Now all that should be left is the main filler hose. There’s another clamp on there, this one’s a 1/4″ socket.
I found that the upper joint was so stuck in place from years of service, that it wouldnt budge. So I decided to get the whole assembly out of there before dealing with it. Getting the lower joint off is a real pain. As soon as the hose clamp was loosened, I could spin the hose around, but it would not come off of the tank. I ended up getting a good grip on the base of the hose by putting my arm through the filler opening in the body, and getting my hand around the base of the filler hose. I was able to wrestle it off by twisting back and forth and pulling as hard as I could. It eventually came off, but it was a bear. Dont worry, it goes back on a lot easier than it came off.
Once it came off, here’s what I had in my hand.
Once I had the hose off, I stuffed a rag in to the neck on the gas tank. Gas fumes arent _that_ pleasant. Now, we get to the modifications.
Here are the original hose, and the replacement side by side.
I took a tape measure and did my best to follow the bend, and measure the stock filler hose. It’s 7″. The new hose is 10″, and there’s no bend in it.
I decided it best to take some off of each end. This removed the crimped on hose clamp as well. You can sort of see my sharpie marks on there.
I decided that i’d take the original clamp off of the stock filler hose, and crimp it on to my newly modified hose. You can see the cut hose in the background, and the bent open crimp in the foreground. I used a pair of vice grips and a screwdriver to get it open, then the same vice grips to crmp it on to the newly cut hose.
Here’s what I ended up with.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Because it’s the same thing I thought when I watched this youtube video on this repair. What’s that fool extra clamp on there for? Basically, in that video i linked, the installer did this little trick that made lots of sense once he’d installed the hose. Because the new hose isn’t bent, you need to force it into a shape that it’s not intended to be in. This could cause the hose to kink. The extra clamp and rubber around it is intended to clamp around a possible kink, and keep it free-flowing.
Now, we just put it all together. I shot the end of the metal filler with some WD-40 to make it a little slick, and I was able to get it into the skinny end of the new hose. I snugged the clamp. Then I slid the larger end on to the neck on the gas tank. This pretty much popped right on. Then I arranged things so that the various clamps were accessible for tightening. I slid the gas tank vent hose back on, this went on easily. Then I lined the rear axle vent hose back up, and zip tied it in place.
Once that was done, I tightened up every clamp except the extra one I have on the hose. Take it from me, tighten all of these as much as possible. You don’t want to have to stop on the trail because one of the guys in your group smells gas, and you’re left to tear into your gas tank area to tighten up your hose clamps in the middle of the trail. Ask me how I know….
Then re-assemble the filler bezel. Once I had the bezel attached, here’s the kink…
So, I made use of that clamp I’d had the foresight to install, and it seems to have helped. *Note: I tightened this external clamp too tightly, and it seems to have caused the flapper valve to stick. I had some cases where the tank filled just fine, but still spit gas at me. Other times it worked just fine. I loosened up that clamp, and it seems to have helped.
Once I buttoned everything up, I took my LJ off to the gas station, and filled the tank from 1/4 tank on up until the pump kicked off. No spill! No Sputter of gas on my shoes! I call it fixed!