I've had this happen before on several types of cars. MOST of the time, its how the nozzle was put into your gas filler, other times is the nozzle its self that is bad, and other times it can be the car's vapor system not working correctly.

This has not happened to me since I started paying cash for my gas, since I never quite fill to full (so I don't have to go back for change)

 

When the gas light comes on, it should take 11.6 gallons to fill it back to full, provided that is the exact two-gallon mark. I think I've heard of gas pumps that don't stop themselves, but to my knowledge I've never encountered one.

 

I have had many many pumps fail like that since self-service became the norm. I always finish off filling by hand to avoid this. Waste of gas, money, and a pint in the ass to clean up sometimes, and you know you need to get if off the paint quickly.

I've put over 12 gallons in mine many times.

I think the furthest I've gone after the low gas warning has been 28 miles.

 

I drive on E all of the time due to my commute. I do know that when I see the light come on I have exactly 2 gallons left which tells me I have exactly 56 miles to find a gas station or I am SOL I usually go 30-40 miles after the light goes on.

I think the furthest I've gone after the low gas warning has been 28 miles.

 

And here I thought your car blew up!!!

Deceiving title

 

It is.. I thought the gas pump exploded

 

Usually it is a bad gas nozzle, but any gas station is going to tell you its operator error. They have signs telling you not to leave it unattended for that very reason.

 

This is a common action of some pump handles--when you're holding the lever down/open, the auto-shut-off feature is disabled. Not on all pumps, but many. Just be careful next time, and lucky you weren't in CA--the local EPA would be on your A$$ for spilling gasoline on the ground and allowing the vapor into the atmosphere--yes--it's that sensitive around here...

 

It was a bad filler nozzle, but they'll blame you. I've only had that happen once or twice in my life. We've had self-serve pumps around here for 30+ years. In the old days of attendents (Don't you dare touch that pump!) the kid would have 1/2 dozen cars filling at once. He'd know who was getting a fill and who was getting $2. worth, and he'd scramble around to keep all those pumps busy. He had to trust the automatic nozzle. Those things are still based on designs from the 1950s (back when they made things that worked).

In NH its against the law to leave the filler nozzle untended while pumping, i.e. they figure you're with it and watching everything. The law is the dealers' way of avoiding responsibility for faulty shut-offs. As Jack said, if you're manually holding it open then you're over-riding the shut-off, though in my experience it usually will fight you and you'll have to keep restarting it, like if you're trying to top it off to an even dollar amount.

Many stations still have the device to hold the nozzle open. Truthfully, when I fill at stations that don't i wedge the gas cap into the lever.

Our '92 Wrangler was a beast to fill -- it would kick off every 50c or I'd have to baby it to let it trickle in and with a flow that slow I was overriding the automatic shut-off. Later Wranglers have moved he gas fill to the side.

 

Most likely the pump is at fault. One time I was at a station and the gas the flowing REALLY slowly so I was probably standing there for over 10 minutes at which point it started overflowing. The station manager admitted they were having issues that day.