I need your opinion on a weird situation

With about four hours left of a 14 hour trip, we filled up the tank of my Tacoma one last time. We got home pretty late and went straight to bed. I woke up and noticed that the fuel door was closed but the gas cap was hanging down under it. There are two scenarios under which this could have happened, first, Toyota doesn't have locking fuel doors and someone could have messed with my tank. Or two, I was very tired and never put the cap back on. Option two seems unlikely to me because I never got a sensor or alert regarding the gas cap. But option one also seems unlikely because why? I would think with the latter option, if I had left the gas cap off, it would trigger an error code. I've had that happen with past vehicles when the cap wasn't secure.

My options are to just say fuck it and drive it and take my chances or be safe and have the tank drained and cleaned. What do you all think? For the record it's my dream truck and would hate to do anything to make a possible bad scenario worse.

 

Dude, you are dreaming up a problem here. Fill her up, drive it and be happy!

 

I take it you’re parked outside. My thought is that someone tried to syphon gas but couldn’t get the hose into the gas because of a security measure in the filler neck and just left it.

 

For peace of mind, check the paint around the fuel door, it should be scuffed from the cap if you drove with it hanging for 4 hours.

Or have you pissed off an ex husband lately??

 

How the hell would you be able to drive 4 hours without noticing the gas cap beating against the side of the bed? Not to mention the amount of scratches it would leave?

 

Luckily haven't pissed anyone off. No scuffs. But I did just get it detailed and it has a special detailing sealant on it

 

Yeah, no scratches, I was playing music loud and moving at high speed.

 

I don’t care what special coating it has…4 hours of wind pounding and you would see it!! If there is no evidence, then most likely someone tried to siphon.

 

My suggestion is to recreate the problem. Open the fuel door and let the cap hang just the way you found it. Sit in the truck and see if it is quite noticeable in the side view mirror. Think about haw many times you looked at the side mirror in 4 hours of driving. I totally agree with the others here that the paint would certainly have some scuffs or blemish in it. Regards Scott

 

It would be weird if there was a little garden gnome, deftly placed inside the tank opening.

 

Lube the fuel door hinges.

 

There is no way you would not have noticed the gas cap being off for 4 hours of driving. The warning message appears in display in front of the steering wheel consistently and repeatedly and a message will appear in the messages of the head unit that you have to clear manually if the gas cap is not tightened properly.

 

Yeah, that's my thinking as well. I usually notice every little thing and would have heard the gas cap rattling and assume a light would have gone off as well.

 

I have a Stant 15504 locking gas cap with no CEL light in 6 years. Not absolute protection, but I work near a high school and never found funny stuff in my tank.

 

Probably what happened is this…. You forgot to put the gas cap on and left the fuel door open….. you get up to highway speed and the wind closes the gas door. As far as the lack of codes, it should have brought one in but for a lot of possible reasons it didn’t.

if it was vandalism, I think they would have put the cap back on and left no evidence.

I wouldn’t loose any sleep over it…a lot of Fords don’t even have a gas cap

 

Awesome! I will pick one up!

 

And tired. I bet you just spaced it.
Of course I've never
I haven't ever driven off but have got into my vehicle and checked side mirrors to see I left it hanging.

 

get 4 ft clear tubing

run to bottom o tank

put thumb over hose...............remove

water....... soda / coke will be evident

or

siphon remaining leftover..................... add techron fill up keep on truckin

 

Maybe try to siphon gas and inspect. Idk. Tough question. If you can’t siphon and have AAA you could always tow and pay a shop to drop tank and empty. Will be a few hundred bucks but will save your engine if tampered with or just a waste for a few hundred bucks if a teenager just opened your cap to be annoying.