Car won’t start after filling with gas

Why Your Car Won’t Start After Filling with Gas

There’s nothing more frustrating than pulling into a gas station, filling up your tank, and then discovering that your car won’t start. In this article, we’ll explore the possible reasons why your car won’t start after filling with gas and what you can do to fix it.

A Faulty Purge Valve Is the Most Common Cause

The evaporative emissions control (EVAP) system is designed to prevent fuel vapors from escaping into the atmosphere. As you fill your tank, the fuel vapors are captured in a charcoal canister. When you start your engine, the ECM commands a purge valve to open. The intake manifold vacuum then sucks fuel vapors from the charcoal canister and burns the fuel in the engine. As this happens, fresh air enters the canister via a vent solenoid valve.

However, it the purge valve fails in the stuck open position, the fuel vapors fill the engine instead of the charcoal canister, resulting in a flooded engine, which is why your car won’t start after a filling with gas.

To get it started, partially depress the gas pedal to allow more air into the engine, allowing it to start. Then, get the purge valve inspected for debris or complete failure.

The purge valve is located in the vehicle’s engine compartment.

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