Loose Gas Filler Cap - Check engine light

[jake75]

I have seen several posts indicating that the check engine light might be caused by an improperly tightened gas cap. On several occasions this forgetful senior citizen has forgotten to put the cap back on at all and I never got a "check engine light". Today I probably drove 5 miles before I realized it was not on. Good thing for that tether.

[ragingfish]

There have been times where the gas attendants here have forgotten to tighten the cap. (Keep in mind, NJ is the ONLY state in the country where it is ILLEGAL to pump your own gas!)Never had the CEL come on. The few times I noticed they didn't tighten it, I would drive home (about 15 miles at the time) to see if the light came on. Never did. *shrug*

[2001FZ1]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »There have been times where the gas attendants here have forgotten to tighten the cap. (Keep in mind, NJ is the ONLY state in the country where it is ILLEGAL to pump your own gas!)*I was in Oregon a couple years ago and was told I was not allowed to pump my own gas. Maybe that has changed recently.

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by 2001FZ1 »I was in Oregon a couple years ago and was told I was not allowed to pump my own gas. Maybe that has changed recently.I stand corrected!Quote, originally posted by Yahoo! »Dear Yahoo!:Why is it illegal to pump your own gas in New Jersey?ChristinaMassapequa, New YorkDear Christina:The Garden State is one of two states where it's illegal to fill 'er up yourself. Only gas station owners or employees can pump gas in New Jersey and Oregon -- "the only two states atavistic, sadistic, and masochistic enough to still require thousands of 'professionals' to waste time, money, and inconvenience customers," according to one columnist.The ban on self-service gas stations is a highly combustible issue and makes for some heated debates. New Jersey passed the law making it illegal to pump your own gas in 1949. At the time, legislators felt it was too dangerous to have untrained people dispensing such a flammable liquid.That may have been sensible at the time, but pumping gas is much safer today, and some motorists feel the ban is outdated and needs to go. Opponents of the law argue that removing it would lower the cost of gas and make refueling much quicker and more convenient. Proponents of the ban argue that it creates jobs and customers like full service.Whatever your position on the matter, next time you're in Jersey and need to refuel, take the opportunity to relax in the comfort of your car while the gas station attendant does the dirty work.

[jake75]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »There have been times where the gas attendants here have forgotten to tighten the cap. (Keep in mind, NJ is the ONLY state in the country where it is ILLEGAL to pump your own gas!)Never had the CEL come on. The few times I noticed they didn't tighten it, I would drive home (about 15 miles at the time) to see if the light came on. Never did. *shrug*Do they expect to be tipped?

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by jake75 »Do they expect to be tipped?not at all.

[mdsolt]

NJ is great and all, but i hate when they fill you with the wrong gas :

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by mdsolt »NJ is great and all, but i hate when they fill you with the wrong gas :I can honestly say I've never had that happen?

[Jahntassa]

Me either..but then I mostly always went to the same gas station, so they pretty much knew what I needed without a word! I miss those guys...

[bud_one]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish » NJ is the ONLY state in the country where it is ILLEGAL to pump your own gas!)Excuse my ignorance.....but why is that?

[Jahntassa]

Read about six posts back...

[bud_one]

D'oh!!!!!Thank you ........

[jbrown]

the system that monitors your fuel system only runs tha test when your tank is 1/4 & 3/4 and other factors also affect when and how often it monitors the system

[binary]

In the manual and the fancy shmancy newsletter I just got - says that the vibe does an evap test after 5 hours of sitting around. "You may notice a noise from the rear of the car, this is normal"That's probably when it'll trip the CEL...

[Vettephil]

My dealer had ordered me a new cap to replace my faulty one (under warranty.) The bad cap kept triggering the light. Apparently it's a widespread problem, because the new cap is backordered for a week or more. And of course an '04 or '06 won't fit my '05!

[zionzr2]

never had any issues with my cap.And have had a locking cap for about 6 months now with no issues either.

[4azdmunky]

OMFG are you serious? You cant pump your gas?What is next, you can breath your own air? (removed)!I have to go smack someone now...........

[Pick]

It certainly can cause it to come on. When i bought my car they of course filled it up, the guy didn't tighten the cap, two days later the CEL came on, i took it in, not knowing the reason for the CEL. Biggest waste of a few hours of my time, all thanks to an idiot that can't put a gas cap on correctly. GRRRRRRRR

[Atomb]

on a side note (sort of), i rented a Ford Escape this week and it had a separate CEL light for the engine and another that showed a sketch of the gas tank and the cap not on it!so they've decided to separate those codes and jsut tell you flat out via a separate dash light that you forgot to put the cap on the gas tank!

[ColonelPanic]

GM has implemented a similar feature as well... Their driver information center on many vehicles will display a 'CHECK GAS CAP' message instead of triggering the check engine light. Pretty smart thinkin', Ford and GM. It's so strange, considering the multitude of problems I've had out of the last two cars, that I've never fell victim to the "gas cap induced check engine light syndrome!" It seems like everyone else can look at thier car their car the wrong way after topping off the tank and BAM! Check engine light! The Malibu before this, the tether broke on the cap and there was no place to hang the cap to the fuel door like we have with the Vibe, only a place to hange the tether, which was no longer present. So, I had to take the cap off completely and had no place to put it other than the trunk, on top of the pump, etc. It never made it back on that one last time, and I didn't realize it until a few hundred miles later when it was time to fill up again that there was no cap present. So, I filled the tank up and drove some more, and by the time I finally had a cap on there, I had gone through almost three entire tanks and close to 1,000 miles without a cap at all - and no light.The Vibe seems pretty immune to it as well, I know there have been many occasions where I haven't tightened the cap down to where it needed to be. I've gone to fill back up and the cap was barely on... Probably when I was filling up the last time, I needed to go over and hit the button for the receipt on the pump, so I just stuck the cap on there with the intention of screwing it down later and forgot to screw it down. Never got a check engine light despite the cap not being properly tightened. Then again, with the way this car runs sometime, it should probably be coding somethin' so I think Toyota sent GM a custom PCM that disables the check engine light except for the test feature when turning the ignition on. It's called the "let's keep this dude out of our shop as much as we can" firmware revision. About six months back, I had to cut the tether on the cap because it was twisted and I couldn't get it to "untwist." Every time I tried to loosen the cap, it would yank on the tether and pull the stupid fuel door closed. doh! So, being too annoyed with that, I just chose to cut the cord and deal with keeping track of the cap myself. I'm surprised I haven't lost this cap yet! What codes do these things set for the gas cap anyway? I guess I'll find out when I'm an idiot and forget to screw the cap back on and this finally shows up and I can use my ScanGauge's code reading functionality. At any rate, I'm not complaining that I don't see this happening! It's just strange that it hasn't so far. *knock on wood*

[binary]

I think you just won the "most emoticons used in a post" award, CP.Bravo! To be ontopic though... the vaccum test that the system goes through requires a long time to sit idle before it'll do a test that could trigger the CEL.

[specialbuddy]

My light just came on. I live in Oregon right now(from Michigan) and ya, I can't fill up my own vehicle. Maybe they didn't put it on right or maybe they're just pissed because I didn't tip them for filling up on Christmas and forgot to put it on. I'm going outside to check.

[ned23]

Quote, originally posted by bud_one »Excuse my ignorance.....but why is that?IIRC, the Oregon law stems from the fact that handi-capped people complained that they had difficulty getting full service. Another poster noted that the NJ law is just very old and has never been repealed.

[sstress]

When I lived in NJ... I saw a t-shirt that said, "when I die I know I'm going to heaven, cuz I've already been to NJ".

[porky]

My gas cap comes loose on it's own, then the check engine light comes on. When I chack the cap, it's loose again. No ryme or reason. Any others with this problem or a solution?

[Cougar Vibe]

It is still the law that one can not pump one's own gas in the state of Oregon. We fly down to Portland a few times a year for shopping and other stuff and I never fail to pull up w/the rental car, jump out and try to pump my own. One time I did inquire about why that law exists and was told (paraphrasing) that it had to do w/the classification of fuels as both hazardous liquids & carcinogens. That said, gas in OR is still cheaper w/the mandated "full service" than self-service in WA (we're paying about $3.15/G locally).

[morbay]

I'm not sure how gas could be cheaper with full service, you'd think you'd have to pay a little extra to cover the cost of the employees' salaries.

[ehoff121]

Welcome to Gen Vibe!Start with the obvious-When you tighten the gas cap after filling up, do you turn the cap until you hear it clicking?Does the check engine light go off after you re-tighten the cap?Have you gotten the error code read while the light is on? The members on the forum can be more helpful if you post the code.I recently had my cap and filler neck replaced due to a stubborn check engine light.