Carpokes Porsche Forum

Bought an '01 996 from an estate, it had sat up for a while. New tires and wheels, battery, fuel pump, numerous other maintenance items. Pretty decent car, runs well, no CELs. Then I try to put fuel in. No good. Discover its a known weak point, read all the usual solutions, go through every component of fuel vent system, drain and inspect tank. Everything works. Finally think of putting borescope camera down the filler pipe. Discover object laying on top of anti siphon piston.See photo. At some point I must have pushed on piston because object disappeared, apparently in to tank. Go to gas station, takes fuel normally. My best guess is the object came off a fuel nozzle, maybe some sort of adapter. Why it prevented fueling, not so sure. Kind of PIA to get in to tank again, don't really think it will cause a problem, given design of pump intake. Anybody recognize the thing or have a similar situation?

That is a a good mystery with a nice solution. No unfortunately I don't recognize that piece. Maybe in the future you will have to get back into the tank and can take a better look for any markings or numbers.

No idea but glad you solved it enough to get fuel in the tank. Good diagnostic!

Maybe one of those safety sleeves off a gas can spout? If it floats and doesn't dissolve, it probably will never be an issue. If it sinks, the debris screen at the pick-up probably stops it from restricting flow by any measurable amount. If you don't want to drain the tank to find it, you might have luck pulling the sender from the top side and fishing it out that way?

Mine was a fuse issue in a 2000 C2.

That’s a pretty wild find. I’d be tempted to leave it alone too if the car is now filling normally and the object is sitting down in the tank. The 996 fuel system already has enough little surprises without dropping the tank just to chase something that may never cause an issue.

My guess would also be something that came loose from a fuel nozzle or some sort of filler equipment. The fact that it was sitting right on the anti-siphon flap and suddenly disappeared when you pushed it makes a lot of sense as the reason you couldn’t get fuel in. The filling problem itself is well documented on 996s, although the usual culprit is the venting system rather than an obstruction in the filler neck.

I’d probably keep an eye on it and consider it a free bonus mystery from the previous owner