I keep up on the maintenance as much as I can. I do all the routine stuff change the oil, air filter, fluids, etc. When I bought the car (2 years ago) it had a complete overhaul as far as brakes, plugs, wires, battery. Since then its been to Ford for all the emission systems last time it was having trouble (about a year and half ago). I'm not a mechanic so when things break I can't fix them without taking them to a shop. I don't think its my maintenance because as far as that is concerned I've kept that up. The only thing it needs right now is tires.

The fuel filter isn't something I can change myself with out messing with fuel lines and clearing the system which I don't know how to do so I don't want to make things worse.

The code it pulls is the small emission leak code, I don't remember the number off hand. The gas cap has been replaced, but the cap for these suck because you only get a half a turn there is no crank noise to know that its tight (like my last car).

So it seems the obvious thing is I need a mechanic to deal with this if its really a fuel system problem. I can't do that on my own, I just don't know what I'm doing there. I'll just park in the yard for a while.

 

They do make a noise. Probably your gas cap is sh*t.

 

They don't make a noise. They go on and you get half a turn, that's it.

 

Something isn't right. You can spin it all day and it'll just click. If you can't get it to click, then something isn't right.

 

my gas cap has never done more than a lil turn and it seals just fine

 

it shouldn't take more than 1/4 turn to get it to seal

 

All fixed...

I dropped it off at the Ford dealer this morning. $25 in parts, and $400 in labor later its fixed. Thankfully my dad offered to help me out with getting the car back on the road. Just in time too because I start my new job tomorrow! yea!

But anyway the important stuff as far as what was wrong with the car. The rings in the neck of the gas tank were bad and not sealing. The gas tank had to come down in order to repair it. I'm glad it wasn't something we would have been able to do at the house. I feel better knowing it was something I would have to take to someone to fix anyway.

 

I knew it! I had the same problem in my 95, The seals went bad where the hose went into the tank, and it smelled of gas when enough was in it, and it would overflow if too much was in it. Had to buy a new gasket from ford for 30 bucks..fortunately the labor on mine was only eighty..glad you got it fixed, been there, done that. Haha