rman

Just to confirm that the fix did work, I have added gas 5 times now thanks for the help.

Success. Thank you very much for the timely reply Fairtax. I had considered early on that the local mechanic had reversed the two small lines but someone told me that the valve was a simple open/close so with the work involved with removing the tire and cover I didn't bother. I took your advice on the cover as well, I am prone to not putting things back if I don't like the design or for access so I reached in with the tire on and broke away the cover to gain access. Too cold for finesse. Popped off both lines and went to the gas station. Put 40 dollars in in a flash. Now I am going to put the lines back on, hopefully the right way, and fill the tank to the top. My wife is happy and we can go see our daughters today because of the fix. Thank you again.

I thought that it was probably well known but no one mentioned it on the three threads and two of the videos I watched.

I have read that two people have helped or eliminated a gas filling problem by swapping the two small hoses on the mechanical valve at the top of the filler tube. I just had my local garage change the filler on my wife's 2000 Forester and now gas will barely go in. 2 gallons in 10-15 min with a can babying it all the way barely. My questions are, what is the proper name for that valve and does it just connect or disconnect flow between the small tubes or does it have a check built in. If it just connects or disconnects then switching the tubes should not accomplish anything and I will have removed the tire and cover for naught. It is very cold and snowy in my driveway so I would prefer not to waste time if I can help it. Advice would be welcomed.

I know that the proper thing to do is replace a rusted out metal hose or tank but I have had good luck once with a cheap fix that a mechanic friend told me about when I was very hard up for money. I was driving a Chevy truck and it developed a gas leak in the very bottom of the tank. His advice , and it worked for years afterwards, was to drain all the gas, use a screwdriver CAREFULLY to make sure the metal around the hole is solid clean up the area with some coarse sandpaper and mix up a palmfull of coarse body fill. Take the body fill and scrunch it into the hole. Don't play with it, smooth it or anything else. 24 hrs later I put gas in and drove the truck for years without a problem. Used to occasionally look at the patch but finally stopped because it always looked the same, ugly and dry. Just a thought depending on how tight money is.

Have been reading a fair bit on a problem I have with my wife's 2000 Forester and was impressed with the amount of information I was gleaning. Just wanted to share something that I did not see about testing relays. My problem is that gas won't go in, takes 15 minutes to put about 2 gal in with a can, and I have been trying different things and scouring the net to get a handle on it. Saw a tutorial video about testing one of the fuel systems valves and found that there is a test connection under the drivers dash that will cause all relays in the vehicle to cycle on a 1 sec interval while the ignition switch is on engine off. Bright geen, easy to see plug it in to test all relays. Had not read that anywhere so I decided to join and share. Probably old news to many but sometimes obvious things don't get taught to us newbies.