I'm a pay at the pump with a credit card guy. If I need to take a leak or buy something, I park the car and THEN go inside.

OK, I realize those are two separate issues. Let's deal with the technical part first: Why are fillers on different sides?

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
I'm a pay at the pump with a credit card guy. If I need to take a leak or buy something, I park the car and THEN go inside.

OK, I realize those are two separate issues. Let's deal with the technical part first: Why are fillers on different sides?

To confuse female drivers?

Meanness.

I just found this out a few months ago.

Instantly See Which Side of Your Car the Gas Tank Is On




Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wl466HA628

I remember a lot of 1960s and 70s cars having the filler behind the license plate. Probably not a good location in a rear-end crash. If you filled the tank and left the gas cap off, the gas would slosh out every time you accelerated. Fun times.

Try a 1973-87 Chevy/GMC truck with dual tanks … on opposite sides. (I owned one, a 1984 C20, for a time.) IF you got close enough to the pump, AND the hose was long enough, you could snake the hose over the truck to fill the opposite tank. Otherwise, you had to lay your gas nozzle down and turn around to fill it. Other customers waiting, not realizing what you were doing, would zip in and try to grab your pump. Even more fun times.

Yep, I remember the ‘behind the plate’ fill spout. I also recall one behind one of the tail lights in a 1956 Chevy that my Dad owned. Used to drive the service guys crazy. No pump your own then.
Mike

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mcrimm,

In the case of Japanese vs American made (and designed) cars it has to do with which side of the road you drive on. It is so, if you’ve run out of gas on the road, you will be standing safely on the shoulder of the road and not out in traffic.

I’ll probably be told that is urban myth, but how I understand it.

The fuel fill is typically on the opposite side of the exhaust exit.

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
The fuel fill is typically on the opposite side of the exhaust exit.

So... in the front then? O_o

So we can sort out the goofballs?

quote:

Originally posted by clubleaf206:
In the case of Japanese vs American made (and designed) cars it has to do with which side of the road you drive on. It is so, if you’ve run out of gas on the road, you will be standing safely on the shoulder of the road and not out in traffic.

I’ll probably be told that is urban myth, but how I understand it.

So care to explain why my Japanese designed and built Nissan, and Japanese designed and built Toyota, but marketed and sold here in the US, have had the fillers on opposite sides?

Also, my last couple of work vehicles, Ford and Chevy, had the fuel fillers on the left side of the vehicle, which contradicts your claim it's to prevent them from being in the traffic side of the road if you're stopped due to fuel starvation.

Yes, you will be told your version is "urban legend," because it is.

https://blog.allstate.com/gas-...-arent-on-same-side/

"In the United States, there are no regulations that specify where a fuel door should be placed. So, car-company engineers can place the door to the gas tank on whichever side offers the easiest packaging, according to Ford spokesman Mark Schirmer.

“The placement of the fuel door is mainly a factor of fuel tank design, location and underbody packaging,” Nissan’s Communications Manager Steve Yaeger said. “With all of the structure and components located underneath the vehicle, (engineers) would quickly encounter restrictions in trying to route the filler tube to the same side on every vehicle.”

If mechanisms such as a big speaker must be placed on the left side, engineers put the fuel door on the right, says Ford spokesman Mark Schirmer. Fuel door position is not a random choice, but if engineers have a good reason to place fuel doors on the right, that’s where they go."

Most of the time we drive the same few vehicles. Is that a Dodge thing to have the fuel door on the passenger side?

For the most part the driver’s side seems most common, here anyway. Then we have that little pointer thingy to look at.

quote:

Originally posted by clubleaf206:
In the case of Japanese vs American made (and designed) cars it has to do with which side of the road you drive on. It is so, if you’ve run out of gas on the road, you will be standing safely on the shoulder of the road and not out in traffic.

I’ll probably be told that is urban myth, but how I understand it.

My Ford F350's fill is on the driver's side and my Ford Focus's fill is on the passengers side. Both where built here in the USA. My 1969 Corvair had the fill in the front fender on the driver's side. My 1945 Ford GPW has the tank and fill under the driver's seat. Your assertion doesn't even rise to the level of a myth.

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
The fuel fill is typically on the opposite side of the exhaust exit.

This was a Car Talk puzzler many years ago: how to tell which side the fuel filler cap was just by seeing the rear of the car.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: henryaz,

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
The fuel fill is typically on the opposite side of the exhaust exit.

^This one^

Wasn't the tank for the GPW located inside the passenger compartment? The Corvair tank isn't near the exhaust. The filler cap being located behind the tail lights and the gas tank in the cab of the truck are ideas that are long gone.

Most modern vehicles have the gas tank located in the center of the car (between the axles/trailing arms and inside the frame/reinforcements of the unitized body structure) Cars will likely have them under the rear seat cavity and trucks will have them under the cab & bed. The gas filler neck has to have a flexible hose between the filler neck and the gas tank due to torsional rigidity. The pressurized fuel line and return line are typically routed the same way due to crash safety standards.

The idea being that the hoses and lines for the fuel aren't next to the exhaust system and don't degrade prematurely due to the heat.

When a car is reengineered for other countries, they typically change the interior and steering linkage only. Not the undercarriage. Some '80s Nissans had a torsion arm along the firewall for the brake booster on what was now the passenger side of the car. Mail jeeps are the same way, just try to find steering linkage for a RHD Jeep.

Sure, there are exceptions. If you have a Chevy truck with the side saddle gas tank, don't let an NBC reporter put firecrackers in your gas cap.

Can anybody tell me what side the gas cap was on for a steam powered Camaro?

Judging by the lines at our local Costco, it seems like 80% of the fillers are on the driver's side. I usually go the the open passenger side lanes and pull the hose over.

Anybody remember the old VW Bugs with the filler under the front bonnet?

Judging by the lines at our local Costco, it seems like 80% of the fillers are on the driver's side. I usually go the the open passenger side lanes and pull the hose over.

Based on our experience with this, filler tank side should be decided by the flip of a coin. Then the lines would be more even (more or less).

By the way try to avoid getting behind a big truck or SUV in the Costco line.

better yet ,

why not put a filler door on both sides , for an extra $27.50 on the price tag.

that would solve all the problems.

no matter which direction you need to approach the pump,
you are g.t.g.