Hey guys,

I have a 2001 V6 Camaro which I've had for about 6 months. Ever since I've owned the car, it has been extremely difficult to fill the gas tank. The fuel constantly backs up and kicks off the pump. It always takes 10-15 minutes to fill up and you have to hold the pump on manually so the fuel is barely flowing.

I tried some searches and found a few people with the same issue, but the solution was not very detailed. Apparently there is a charcoal canister somewhere that may need to be replaced? Is this under the hood or near the gas tank? Also, found a post about a vent solenoid that may need to be replaced?

Any tips on what to try first to troubleshooting this?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

um i would pull off your fill tube and start there charcoal canister is part of the evap system and is under the hood but if something is clogging your fill tube and causing splash back it would stop the pump from filling on auto

 

^^^^yep check for a stopage. could be somebody was trying to get some gas out of it and stuffed a hose in there and got it stuck and cut it off and left it in there. lol, well that could be a little far fetched but it u never know.

 

I had a similar problem and got to playing with the pump handle and found that it worked great if i didn't put the nozzle all the way in.

 

Checked the fill tube and didn't find any clogs. It seems to be clear.

 

Tried that. No matter how far I pull out the nozzle, it still kicks off repeatedly even if I barely pull the pump handle enough to start the fuel flowing.

 

I ran into a similar issue before. It turned out that I wasn't angling the nozzle enough. You need to push the back end of the nozzle/grip area up more.

 

Thanks, but I've moved the nozzle in, out, up, down and sideways and nothing helps. I've also tried different gas stations, but they all do the same. It really seems that I have a venting problem and I was hoping someone would have more details on the venting solenoid that I read about in another post.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

It's possible that it could be the EVAP system, but I doubt it. It's an easy enough system to check, though.

The charcoal canister is NOT under the hood as someone mentioned above. It's behind the rear driver side wheel (lift the car and remove the plastic cover). That canister has 3 hoses connected, and one of those hoses has a test valve on it. Attach a vacuum hand pump to that and see how much pressure it holds. I don't have my Haynes manual handy right now, but if you have one it will tell you what pressure that canister should hold. If the canister is clogged, that would completely stop venting from the fuel tank, which could cause your problem (it would make the gas pump read a high pressure in the tank and assume it's full).

One of those hoses runs under the car alongside the fuel lines, all the way to the engine. Under the hood, there's a purge solenoid and a vent switch. On the 3.8L, these are on the passenger side of the engine (not sure about other engine sizes).

If you follow the hose that's coming from the canister, it should lead directly to the vent switch. There are two other ports on the vent switch. One connects to the purge solenoid, and the other should be open to the atmosphere. This allows air to come in if the gas tank vacuum pressure is too low.

The line from the vent switch should lead to the purge solenoid. This should have another hose that leads to the throttle body or intake manifold. This allows fuel vapors to go through the engine's air intake if the fuel tank's vacuum pressure is too high.

When the car is off, the whole system should be off. However, excess vapor pressure in the fuel tank should still be able to vent to the charcoal canister (also called vapor canister). If the lines to/from that are plugged, or if the canister itself is clogged, it could possibly have the effect you mentioned.

I wouldn't expect this to be the problem, however, unless your service engine light is on. That should come on if there are any problems with the EVAP system. On the other hand, if you have an unobstructed fill tube, as you said, then it would almost HAVE to be a vent problem.

 

The filler tube usually has some sort of restrictor and deflector to prevent fueling with leaded gas. The valve is pushed open when the hose is inserted. Try something like an electrician's snake & see if it goes all the way into the tank.