Why do gas pumps shut off mid-fill?
I managed a gas station for 3 years. This does not indicate that the pumps are working incorrectly, and there is no relation to how full the station’s tanks are. If either of these were true, several successive cars would have the same problem, and they don’t. So it’s the car, and not the pump. It is one of two things a) the bubbling thing that has been explained very well above (think of pouring juice too fast out of a TetraPak – it glugs so the air can escape) OR b) the combination of the shape of the bend on the nozzle not fitting quite right with the bend in the pipe in your car that goes to your gas tank. I have always been able to fix this by not inserting the nozzle as deep into the car. Try just pulling the nozzle out of the car a tiny bit (like 1/2 inch). It seems to allow the gas to flow down into the car more smootly and the displaced air to escape more easily. This has fixed the problem for me every single time.
