stall after fill-up; gas dripping on driveway | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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stall after fill-up; gas dripping on driveway

kmanning

Member
Joined
September 27, 2009
Messages
15
Reaction score
7
City, State
Knoxville, Tennessee
Year, Model & Trim Level
'02 XLT
After filling up with gas (I am not an over-filler), car began surging around 30 mph once I had driven a couple of miles. Then stalled. Gas was also dripping onto the driveway. The gas came from the top of the fuel tank, down the driver side of the fuel tank, and dripped onto the driveway. Appeared to originate at the rectangular box sitting on top of the gas tank, specifically where a line/hose/cable meets the rectangular box. Changed fuel filter and symptoms disappeared until next fill-up. Stalled again, more gas on driveway, and decided to take it to a shop, which is about 5 miles away. Got within a half mile of the shop and it died. Restarted and got 5 more blocks and it died again. At that point each time I restarted, it would die immediately. Called for a tow, and when tow truck got there an hour later the car fired right up and was able to drive it onto the rollback. The shop could not replicate the problem. They did a computer system diagnostic and testing, checking for trouble codes and tested the computer system and sensors. Found nothing wrong. They did see something misshapen about the air inlet housing, repaired that, and cleaned the "mass air meter" (MAF sensor?). They told me to try driving it and if I had more problems to bring it back. I have zero confidence in taking this vehicle out on the highway for fear that it will stall in traffic. Do you have any ideas about what could be the problem? I told the shop I thought it might be in the evaporative emissions, but evidently they could not find a problem there.
 



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i think evap, if im thinking of the right piece, thats the charcoal canister filling? any CEL on? afaik it shouldnt get gas in it. not sure about the X evap, but at least on yotas the VSV is a valve in front of the canister that lets vacuum clean the canister out. now if gets stuck on it could suck fuel up into the canister, or the valve in the cap releases. does the motor run rich when this happens?
 






Thank you for replying. No check engine light comes on. I am not sure I know enough to tell when the motor runs rich; you can't smell anything, you just feel the surging/jerking and of course the stalling. How would I go about diagnosing if the valve is stuck in the on position? I checked the price on a new charcoal cannister, about $180, but I hesitate to sink that into it if another part is failing and will then mess up the new canister.
 






also, how cool is it out when you filled vs when it stalls? cause gas underground is going to be cooler than the air above, take LA for example. during summer we hit 110 where i am, i bet the gas under ground is loads cooler, and once its pumped into the tank, and run for a tiny bit it would expand, but i doubt it would be significant enough to flood the canister. not 100% sure on how tje valve works, i assume its electronicallt controlled, but im not too sure. maybe someone else will chime in
 






Thank you. I will say that it has been unusually hot here for May, and this could be a factor, but then it would have been a problem last summer and the summer before that, too. Something new has happened that is causing this behavior that has not occurred in the past.
 






Thank you. I will say that it has been unusually hot here for May, and this could be a factor, but then it would have been a problem last summer and the summer before that, too. Something new has happened that is causing this behavior that has not occurred in the past.
yeah, could be the VSV. only thing is, not sure how to test it 🤣
 






Ok thanks very much; this gives me a place to start researching more
 






If you haven't checked for codes I would recommend doing this. Some codes will not trip a light in the instrument cluster. I am sure that a good diagnostic technician can identify the problem by logging live data from various sensors.
 






Thank you. The folks at O'Reilly's had told me that their code reader would not help if the check engine light was not on, but that a shop could hook it up to a computer and do a better job. So I paid $80 to the shop for a computer system diagnostic, but they could not find any codes.
 






Thank you. The folks at O'Reilly's had told me that their code reader would not help if the check engine light was not on, but that a shop could hook it up to a computer and do a better job. So I paid $80 to the shop for a computer system diagnostic, but they could not find any codes.
do they know if its running rich? if the canister fills w fuel, it should run rich theb
 






This is where a good, knowledgeable diagnostic technician can look at live data and pinpoint the problem(s). Finding these type of people might not be easy.
 






Thank you. I will say that it has been unusually hot here for May, and this could be a factor, but then it would have been a problem last summer and the summer before that, too. Something new has happened that is causing this behavior that has not occurred in the past.
It has been warmer than usual here in phoenix, last week I had a problem with my refrigerated trailer with a diesel engine. Hottest part of the day the motor sounded like it was running rough, low idle like almost out of fuel. The unit wouldn't high idle. I took the fuel cap off the tank and the motor cleared up instantly. You might have a problem that just developed that the tank isn't venting properly.
 






SOLVED
I could not get the shop to tell me if it was running rich. Ultimately I took it to the Ford dealership, and they succeeded in repairing it, which took over 6 weeks. Turns out that the fuel vapor vent valve assembly, which is internal to the fuel tank, had failed. Liquid fuel was flowing from the fuel tank into the fuel vapor hoses and reaching the charcoal canisters. The solution was to put a new fuel tank on the vehicle. However, Ford no longer makes the fuel tank. There are aftermarket tanks available which purportedly fit the vehicle, but evidently these aftermarket tanks are just the fuel tank, and lack the internal fuel vapor vent valve assembly. At least, that is what the dealership told me. Thus it is unclear how such an aftermarket tank can be installed on the vehicle and still have the evaporative emissions system function properly. The dealership located a used fuel tank from a salvage yard. They installed it on my vehicle, and the problem is solved. I would add that I paid for an evaporative emissions system diagnostic by the Ford dealership, which initially showed no problems. Then they dropped the fuel tank and could not find any "leaks." I had to reiterate that the gas was "dripping" from the charcoal canister, not "leaking" per se, and then finally they looked at the canisters and realized that liquid fuel was escaping from the tank, entering the vapor hoses, and going into the charcoal canisters. I am posting this in case somebody else has this problem in the future; maybe this will help. Of course they had to install 2 new charcoal canisters when they replaced the fuel tank. Thank you to everybody on this forum who provided such helpful suggestions. It took all of this input to get the problem solved. The shops were too quick to say that they could not find anything wrong.
 






The dealership isn't cheap, they did their job.
 






Sorry I didn't see this sooner I could have told you exactly what it was. Had the same issue on my wife's 03. Other symptoms in our case included check fuel cap light intermittently, spilling from filler neck as if the tank was full but it would hardly have any fuel in it and then you had to pump the fuel really slowly or it would just shoot out, crap fuel mileage, and a code (eventually) saying fuel vent valve circuit or something like that. What a pain.
 






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