My car is throwing a vent code and there is no obvious tank vacuum when I open the cap.
[nitpick]Vapor lock is when a pump designed to work with liquid is faced with vapor on its intake side. Sucking in the vapor does not pull along any liquid that’s farther up the supply line, and the pump loses its prime and stops pumping. While this (speculated) situation has similarities, the pump has liquid in its intake but is fighting a vacuum pulling said liquid away from it. It’s not actually vapor lock.[/nitpick]
It’s not the 55K miles so much as the 5 years. While the majority of gas caps (or almost any other part you’d care to name) will last longer than that, some percentage of them will fail sooner than average. It may not be common, but it’s not unheard of.
Then check out this postto see which vent codes are associated with which potential problems.
Testing the cap is part of the emissions inspection in my state. IME they fail VERY frequently. I’ve had a couple on my own cars, and several neighbors have asked me about it. In at least 3 cases I am sure about, the inspection was at a place that ONLY does inspections, so made no money off the replacement cap.
Note that none of these seemed to have any effect on the engine operation.
Thank you, you are right. Some issues have to happen a certain number of cycles before the engine light will be lit.
Do the simple things first. Please just procede with your plan to change the fuel filter this weekend. It’s a low cost, regular maintenence thing that need to be done anyway after 55k miles.
Don’t look for a more exotic problem until simple fuel system maintenence is done. And that is the filter.
Or you could just skip the filter and look at all the other fuel system problems it might be, and then change the filter last. Plugged EVAP canisters, injectors, fuel pump, etc. …
Just change the filter first.
OK, pulled the FPR and of course my local auto parts store doesn’t stock them. Cleaned the fuel filter with carb cleaner and no gunk came out. Now I’m worried. Ran the car and same problem.
What concerns me is that the problem doen’t occur until the car is warm so I don’t think it’s the filter. I’ve heard that that’s the sign of a failing fuel pump (along with the intermittantcy). I hope that the fuel pump is covered under the 7 year - 70000 mile warranty. Looks like I need to give Dodge a call to see.
The fuel pump is usually in the gas tank and is kept cool by the gas. So you could be right that the pump is failing since the symptoms happen after the car is warm, or after the pump heats up.
I would think that the pump is covered by warranty. Good luck.
Final verdict, bad o2 sensor.
Oh, and my sunroof which started jamming after 33K miles and I got fixed (all they did was oil the rails) and stopped working 2 days after that (yes I do procrastinate) finally got looked at. The whole system is toast. According to the shop, the extended warranty did not cover the roof so it would be $2K to fix. I said no to the fix, but I’ll have to see my warranty to see why it isn’t covered since it is supposed to be 7yr 70k miles stem to stern.
Probably it was not a factory installed item, they did it afterward at the dealership, and used cheap junk, which is why it broke.