Almost shot my Saab this morning...

[Rognmoe]

Yup, I almost murdered it. In the gas station full of witnesses. I went to fill it up and the pump would kick shut every .25 gallons or so. Why is the car doing this? It wasn't the pump. I tried another one to be sure and it did the same thing. In the beginning, it also spat some fuel back out of the opening. It also DIDN'T have any problems for the last 2 or 3 gallons.

I was extremely irritated at having a fill up take 20 minutes AND I was late for work. Any solutions so I don't try to blow it up next time I'm at the gas station?

[Shazam]

I've got two guesses.

The first is that the fuel tank breather/vent is kinked or clogged. This would prevent fuel from flowing into the tank smoothly; meaning it pours in more slowly than the gas pump can pump it, so the pump thinks the tank is full when it eventually backs up enough to trigger the pump.

The second is something is wrong with the filler neck of the gas tank (collapsed, kinked...). This seems less likely, as the filler neck is much beefier than the little vent hose/pipe.

I had the same problem on my old 96 after I pulled the gas tank. Turns out I kinked the vent line when re-installing, and it would always think the tank was full after a gallon or two.

In the mean time, try just pumping the gas slower until you can figure out the problem.

[Rognmoe]

Huh. Irritating. I'll see how it does next time I fill up. If its the same, I'll have the people take a look at it when I take it in for it's service.

[Brad Lauzze]

How much fuel did the car end up taking?

[Rognmoe]

Oh, it took the full tank. Filled up again the other day and it was doing the same thing, but didn't do it for as long. I'll have them look into it when I get the next service done...

[AT ONE SIR]

This happens constantly on my 2001 9-5 Wagon, and it always has. You can never just click in the fuel nozzle and clean your windows during a fill-up. It's babysitting the pump every time. Some pumps are worse than others. I've tried changing the angle of the dangle, and no joy. I've looked into this for years and no one has even given me anything to check or try. IIRC, the last info that stuck in my head was "it's something odd SAABs do". Which sadly, made sense to me.

[nordwulf]

Never had this problem with all the 9-5 I owned ('01, '04, ,05 and '06). As Shazam mentioned, there may be something wrong.

Just had some difficulties with those annoying gas nozzle rubber boots in California but I think that's universal with most cars.