I have never turned my vehicle off while pumping gas in my life and have yet to have an issue. Especially coming from a Northern state where it gets pretty cold you see a lot of people doing the same thing. What is the potential risk or is it all just a myth?
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ELI5: it’s an excess of caution, because giant explosions are bad. Also, you’ll confuse the car and cost yourself money. Plus, if you do it you’ll scare the people around you, which is rude.
I suspect it hasn’t been a genuine safety issue in decades.
The sparks and heat and so forth from the engine that could cause a fire are pretty well contained. Google tells me the auto-ignition temperature of gasoline vapors is over 546°F. If you have sparks or heat like that outside the engine compartment, you have a giant safety problem before you get to the gas station. If you have heat that high (except at the exhaust manifold) or free sparks in your engine compartment, get to your mechanic,.
You know there are idiots out there who violate every safety rule. How often do you hear about gas stations exploding? If Shell or Exxon thought you could blow up their station, kill their customers, and tie them up in lawsuits for years they would not let you pump your own gas.
On the other hand, the car’s computer is looking for gas leaks (for emissions reasons) and it expects the gas tank to be pressurized. You open the gas cap when the engine is running the computer will think gas fumes are leaking into the environment and it will throw the check engine light on. You can get that read at the auto-shop for free, or so I’ve heard, but if you go to a mechanic they’re going to charge you $50-100 to check everything over and turn it off.
But ask yourself, if you were filling up and saw the person one pump over was filling with their engine running, would you drop everything and run for your life? No? Then you don’t truly believe there’s a risk. Because you haven’t heard of anyone being caught in an explosion at a gas station. It’s pretty rare. The companies that run those stations are not stupid. They are very, very much not stupid.
This is my opinion, and nothing in my background suggests it should be read as authoritative.
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