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'98 Aurora fuel tank venting problem


Guest Dynaflo2

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Guest Dynaflo2

Hi, guys! My daily driver is a '98 Aurora I bought about 110,000 miles ago. Somebody else put on the first 24,000 or so. At any rate, the problem I have is as follows: When refueling, even when the needle is below E, the pump will kick off after about three gallons (often less) and fuel will come <span style="font-style: italic">spewing</span> back out the filler neck not just once, but TWICE. The3 pump continues to kick off after relatievly small amounts of fuel for the entire filling process, usually in the neighborhood of 17 gallons. My stopgap measure? Fuel s l o w l y and stuff a bunch of paper towels in around the filler neck. This has been going on for months. I have had it looked at by more than one mechanic (some don't even want to touch it) and it pretty much comes down to the check valve in the vent tube. My mechanic today badmouthed the Aurora in general and then told me that if the check valve is bad he may have to replace the entire gas tank and for all he knows, it may be a design problem with the car and the same thing could happen again in two weeks. Not a happy thought when I think of the bucks this will run to fix in the first place. My question (and thank you for reading this far) is this: What is your experience with this problem on this model car? My comment today to the mechanic was that by 1998, they had been building cars for about 100 years and in the 33 + years I have been driving (legally wink.gif ) I have never even heard of this problem. Is this common for the Aurora? Any fixes out there simpler than lowering everything behind the tranny? Thanks for reading and for your information.

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I have a '98 aurora and have never had a problem like that, so I don't have a ready solution except to take it to a Buick or Cad dealer. Cad used the same engine, with a few more inches, so I'm guessing the fuel system is quite similar. The Riviera is a pretty similar car, also.

Sounds like the guy you talked to had no clue how to fix it, so he tried to scare you away. Better to scare you off than admit he doesn't know anything about it.

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I have not heard of other Auroras having this problem. I can tell you that there are 3 vent valves on the tank and they are not serviced. Replacing these vent valves requires tank replacement. That is the only way GM services the valves. Isn't GM great?

Paul

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Dynaflo2

Well, problem solved at least for now. I ended up taking the car to a Saturn dealer where I know a guy that knows a guy. Since they have access to the entire GM repair database, I gave them a spin. They never did find the smoking gun, but during their diagnostics (remove & replace filler neck, electronically check valving, remove, inspect, and replace recirc hoses), they seem to have knocked loose whatever was clogging the vent. Now I can fill the tank without having to baby it.

Thanks for the reads & replies!

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