I was hoping you’d found in the thread Rusty’s discovery:
"What seems to have been the problem is a small plastic box - about the size of a cigarette box, with one end opened and a small hole at the opposite end. The semi-closed part is sort of slanted (like a lean-to hut).
This small plastic box is mounted inside the rear bumper.
Neither I nor the independent mechanic are sure of what this little plastic boxes function is, but a vacuum hose of some sort leads from it to the CHARCOAL CANNISTER.
Now the charcoal cannister seems to draw air through this little plastic box - which was filled with leaves and other debris-causing it to stop-up.
Apparently, water has been draining over the rear bumper and somehow, ending up in this plastic box.
Now the charcoal cannister seems to have been sucking water from this plastic box. It also seems that the cannister continued to suck any and all water that cascaded over the bumper. "
It was that post that sent me to Nissan with a copy of this whole thread for them to read. They still denied that that was the problem and insisted that I didn’t know what I was talking about. Unfortunately my mechanic friend is out of town on vacation this week but as soon as he returns Monday I am going to see him, show him the posts and see if he can take care of it for me as I refuse to give those pirate bastards at nissan another dime!
Well, took our Nissan to our independent mechanic and the problem seems to be solved. It was exactly as thought - the little breather box. Our mechanic relocated it to avoid the water spilling over the bumper and said it should be ok now. The logic behind it was that apparently Chevy had a similar problem with one model of truck and relocating the part took care of the problem. Cost to repair the problem and drain the water out of the tank - $175. Nissan can go screw themselves!
We own a Nissan Sentra, 2003 model, bought used for my son to drive when he got his license. We had exactly the same problem.
His car stalled about 1 1/2 miles into a drive to school on the morning after a torrential rainstorm. The independent mechanic we took it to told us the car had been vandalized - likely with soda added to the tank. He said it was a massive amount of liquid he found in with the gasoline. He said there were leaves, trash and dirt in there as well.
It needed a new fuel pump and spark plugs and he dried out the system and added some kind of fuel treatment (Seafoam).
The car ran like a top until the next rainstorm – same exact problem. Car stalled in exact same location, which was handy for the tow driver. It also supported my idea that the car had not been vandalized. Exact same issue after heavy rains - could not support vandalism as a cause.
The car went back to the mechanic, who said he thought it was coincidence. I expressed doubt - and pointed out both instances were after or during torrential rainstorms.
He agreed to thoroughly check the system and discovered the “evap” device (plastic cone in the rear bumper with vaccum hose. It was pointed opening up.) In the interest of thoroughness, he moved it behind a little metal shield and pointed it sideways. He siliconed it in place. The car has sat through a week’s worth of torrential rains, and is still running like a top.
I must give congrats to the mechanic on being a good detective and finding the problem on the second try. I’m surprised that the Nissan dealership responsible for starting this thread wasn’t aware of the issue.
I do suspect our mechanic looked hard hoping to prove me wrong, but he did find the problem and fixed it. He also got a new fuel pump on a warranty claim and cut us a deal on the labor. He was more than fair.
I understand why Nissan won’t admit this - it would mean a massive recall because this is clearly a design flaw.
Our mechanic says that if we get water in the gas tank now, it will be because we’ve driven the car into a lake.
I didn’t read all the responses and didn’t realize it was 6 years old. I was going to say if it were me, I’d just pull the tank and replace it to make sure the tank is tight and the gasket on the pump is good, but this is a better answer. Maybe these were Monday cars and the sub worker got the snorkel pointed the wrong way just like in the old days.
Hate to keep this going, but just want to point out that a little bit of added water to gasohol can cause most of the ethanol to go into the water layer, i.e., ethanol would rather be with water than with gasoline. I’m guessing most of the “water layer” was ethanol.