Which side is your gas tank filler on? Don't look back.

[usonian]

It's on your dash.



Here, it's on the driver's left.
Its inventor just passed away.

Ford Engineer That Designed Gas Tank Indicator Passes Away

https://fordauthority.com/2025/12/ford-engineer-that-designed-gas-tank-indicator-passes-away/

James Moylan is most well-known for the Moylan Arrow, which stems from one rainy day in 1986, when he pulled a company car into a gas station to refuel it - only to discover that he parked on the wrong side of the pump. Moylan wound up getting soaked, which set of a proverbial light bulb - what if cars had an arrow near the fuel indicator gauge as a quick, visual reference to inform drivers which side is used to refuel?

“I got back to my office after the meeting, and without even taking my coat off, I sat down and started writing the first draft of this proposal,” Moylan told Design News in 2020. “I typed it up and turned it in and forgot completely about it." "The indicator or symbol I have in mind would be located near the fuel gauge,” Moylan wrote in his proposal to his boss, R. F. Zokas, “and simply describe to the driver on which side of the vehicle the fuel fill door is located.” By 1989, the Moylan Arrow began showing up in Ford vehicles, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Thanks!

[House of Roberts]

1. Rita Rudner says she has a car with a rotating gas tank.

The filler is always on the side away from the pump.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Unless you own many cars,

you ought to learn where the gas tank filler is the first or second time you put gas in. And no, it never moves to the other side.

[UpInArms]

6. My Subaru is on the passenger side

The ford ranger and the Honda civic are on the driver side …

Sometimes it takes me a bit figure out what I’m driving

[dflprincess]

13. I also have a Subaru and it's the first car I've ever owned with the gas tank on the passenger side

The first several months I had it, I pulled up to the pump thinking it was on the driver's side more than once (and did I feel goofy when I did that).

[mwmisses4289]

20. Yup, Vw has the tank on the passenger side

I will have to look at my dash and pay attention to the arrow.

[PJMcK]

23. Rental cars

Company vehicles.

Friends’ or family member’s cars.

All vehicles have a fuel gauge but most also have a low fuel warning light. Do you consider that indicator useless?

It’s not just your car, it’s a convenience.

Clearly the industry and public don’t agree with your point of view.

[Phoenix61]

3. So convenient when you're in a rental.

I did have to ask a gas station attendant how to open the gas tank cover. He laughed and said he had to do that a lot for that car… the release was in the glove box!

[3catwoman3]

7. That seems very odd. I don;t know that I'd have thought to look there.

What make of car was this?

[Phoenix61]

8. I don't remember. It was a cheap rental around 1989.nt

P

[viva la]

4. That's one of those common-sense fixes--

that we all think we should have thought of.

"Squeezable ketchup bottle"-- I swear I thought that first.

[3catwoman3]

5. What a great trivia question.

Mine is on the driver's side, which I find preferable.

And, this might be weird, but I don't like pulling the gas hose across my car, so I usually will wait in line to go to a pump that will be on the driver's side.

[Delarage]

24. I get my gas at BJs

There are always lines waiting for the driver side pumps....where my Corolla's filler is....and I love skipping all that and pulling the hose all the way over. Doesn't seem to damage anything, saves time & gas, and my car is SUPER OLD. So it works for me 👍

[usonian]

9. I got a loaner Subaru, and was looking for the gas cap release lever. There was none.

It somehow worked without it. Have to research. No "magic" key.


THAT I KNEW OF!!!

[Old Crank]

14. Gas tank cover release

Some have a cable. Usually driver's side on the A pillar below the dash or in front of the seat at the floor. Many more have a much the cover release to pop it open. This is lighter and has fewer things to go bad, like dirt and rust in the cable from the cabin.
The cable release usually opens a driverside cover. The last rental I had, the person showed me where the release was.

[sdfernando]

10. Mine is on the

side where I put the gas in.

[CentralMass]

11. Mine is on the driver's side.

[LudwigPastorius]

12. My '72 Chevy Nova didn't have that problem.

The filler tube was behind the license plate in the back.

Similar to this:

[Old Crank]

15. I remember those.

And seeing cars drive away from the pump pouring gas out because they overfilled the tank. A great feature when you had to park your car over a puddle of gas to get to the pump.

[dflprincess]

16. My dad had a '57 Bel Air

I was about 4 when he got it. He amused himself by asking me to guess where the gas went in. I checked both sides of the car, then thought I'd show how smart I was because I knew it was behind the license plate on his old car. Wrong again.

It was behind a door on the tail fin. I was truly amazed - which is probably why I remember it so clearly.

[LudwigPastorius]

19. Woah.

That's some Space Age design right there!

[Old Crank]

17. Borrowed a friends car to do an errand.

I knew about the arrow so when I pulled into the station I parked accordingly.
Wrong side. I had misread the dash and had seen an indicator for fuel economy or something and not the tank gage.

[summer_in_TX]

18. I never noticed Moylan's Arrow before this article. I'm looking forward to finding it in our two vehicles.

Very handy for those working with a fleet of cars or in the automobile industry especially.

Cool!

[moniss]

21. Mine used to be in my driver's side rear fin on my '57 Chevy then

later on some of mine were on either side or behind the license plate. I liked my '57 the best.

[LisaM]

22. We learned this trick a few years ago when we had a rental.

It seems to me that it would be more sensible to just always put the gas tank on the same side in every car, but engineers seem resistant to standardization. I don't user copiers much anymore but it used to frustrate me to no end that toner cartridges were so stupidly different from each other.