Car won’t start after filling with gas

Car won’t start after filling with gas

Possible causes of car won’t start after filling with gas

If your vehicle has a faulty purge valve, filling it with gas will cause fuel vapors to get pushed into the engine, causing it to flood, resulting in a car won’t start condition.

The purge valve is located in the engine compartment of the vehicle.

A stuck open purge valve is the most common cause of a car won’t start condition

To diagnose a bad purge valve, try starting the flooded engine by pressing the accelerator pedal to the floor and hold it there while cranking the engine. That will enable the “clear flood” mode in the ECM and stop adding fuel while cranking.

To fix the won’t start after filling with gas condition

You have two options here:
1) Replace the purge valve without doing any testing
2) Clamp off the purge valve hose between the tank and the purge valve before filling the tank. If the engine starts right up, you’ll know the purge valve is leaking vapor into the engine during fillup

What causes a purge valve to fail

A purge valve can fail simply because the solenoid fails, or

A breach in the charcoal canister can cause charcoal particles to clog the purge valve. If you remove the purge valve and find charcoal particles, the charcoal canister is damaged. The canister must be replaced and the lines flushed to clean out all the particles or they will damage the new purge valve.

©, 2020 Rick Muscoplat