I’ve noticed my car (Mitsubishi Endeavor 2005) having hard time starting the engine after I fill up the gas tank. I have to try a few times before the car is fully started. There’s no check engine light is on. However Autozone says there’s a P0455 Pending Code Gross Leak.
What does this mean? I brought it to the dealership mechanic, they replaced the purge valve but they told me they’re not sure if that’s the problem (??). I won’t know til I fill up my gas tank next time.
The car tries to start. Cranking is the word?no dead silence. but it stops… all the lights of the dashboard lit up. The key wont turn over. Like a dead battery situation. Today I had to push the key all the way to the right for a few seconds and the engine finally started.
The key won’t turn to START position. That’s for sure.
The engine TRIES to start. It makes noise like it’s starting but it just stalled? It stops completely. Dead silence. and all the lights on the dashbord are on, like the engine check, oil change, etc.
I will have to try restarting it again but the key just won’t turn over. Only at least at 3rd try, usually it works or like today, I pushed the key all the way up/to the right to get engine started.
Sorry, that still doesn’t make sense. If the key won’t turn all the way to the start position, there is no way the engine could try to start. Only in that position is the starter engaged.
You may have more than one problem there, but maybe first focus on why a car could be hard to start immediately after filling up the tank. By “hard to start” I mean you turn the key to “start”, you hear that rrr rrr rrr sound, but it doesn’t pop and run on its own right away, as is normal. Instead it takes 5 -15 or more more seconds of the rrr rrr r rrr sound before it runs on its own, at which point you return the key to the “on” position and drive away.
So how is that involved with filling that tank? When you fill the tank, the air space above the fuel level in the tank gets replaced with liquid gas. That air has to go somewhere as the liquid gas comes in. And the emissions regulations prevent it being vented to the outside air. So it is routed instead to the charcoal canister. The canister can’t hold air, only gasoline, so there’s a vent valve in the canister to allow the excess air to exit, as it goes by the charcoal grabs the gasoline. Then when you start the car you got a canister full of gasoline. The purge valve (apparently that’s what was replaced) prevents that gasoline from going into the engine at idle or during start-up, and waits until you are going down the road to start purging the canister of gasoline. If it allows the gas to go into the engine too soon, it will create too rich of mixture, and make the car hard to start, and/or idle poorly. So it was a reasonable guess to replace the purge valve. And a faulty purge valve could cause a evap leak code. Unfortunately, that didn’t do the job.
There’s three likely problem areas remaining. First, the vent valve may not be opening during the fill-up like it should. Second, the charcoal canister could be clogged, possibly related to the vent valve not opening. Third, it might just be the gas cap where you put the gas in , the cap could be faulty.
There’s other possibilities beyond all that , but those three are where I’d start if I had that problem. You might just try loosing the gas cap when the hard to start occurs. Don’t drive it that way, but if loosening makes it easier to start, you might be lucky, just need a new gas cap. The gas cap has a couple of spring loaded valves inside, and those sometimes fail, which can form a vacuum in the tank and can hinder gas from being pumped to the engine.
Yes “hard to start” is the best way to describe the issue… I do hear a few seconds of rr rrr rrr and then the car just dies(?) I will have to re-do this several times or like today, I pushed the key to the max and made the rr rrr rrr noise lasted a few seconds longer and the car finally started.
I figured this would have something to do with the Evap or fuel system since the issue only happens every time I fill the gas tank (full or just a few gallons)
I will mention all of this at the dealership tomorrow and I’ll let you guys know what they will fix and if that solves the issue.
