No, the vapour pressure of gasoline is so high it expels air from the tank- gasoline is very, very volatile. This is not a theoretical concept - look at real fuel senders on real cars ! I remember being about 11 years old and noticing this when my dad and I were working on our family car-this was his explanation of why we don't all go "boom".

Hallo Steve,

yes, I think you are right. I could imagine that everything inside the tank is wet from gasoline, even the surface of tank sensor! So, no spark can occur. Even if tank is nearly empty, so empty that the engine will no longer run, there should still be enough gasoline in the tank to not allow explosive air mixes.

The protection circuit was mainly addressed to the experimenting of Farshid. He told that he had fixed holes in the tank and experimented with tank sensor, which made me feel, that he opened the tank at sensor side from time to time. Then, there could be enough air near tank sensor to give an explosive gasoline air mix.

But again, keeping in mind how many tank sensors might have shown a wiper break in the last 70 years, we would have heard of some more 'booms', if there would be a relevant probability of make a gasoline tank explode by a failing tank sensor...

Kai