Someone stole gas from me and now my engine runs weird?

[swathdiver]

Except for that pretty bride, you haven't been having much good luck lately my friend!

First of all, get yourself the proper gas cap. It ought to be yellow, a GT295/20915990.

Then consider running a couple of tanks of E85 to clean out whatever might have gotten in there.

As you know, clicking while fueling can be a number of things, the purge or vent valve, vapor canister or lines corroded or full of charcoal pellets.

 

[Dustin Jackson]

@swathdiver I keep telling myself that eventually things will settle down, right now our biggest struggle is taking care of our disabled 3.5 year old. Wifes job let her go because of all the time she would take off work to take him to his appointments and therapies so we are working on coasting by financially until we can get some IHSS income assistance for all the time she has to spend taking care of him but we keep getting denied. Feel liking I'm hanging onto the "American dream" by the skin of our teeth, I am more well off than everyone I know yet we are still basically living paycheck to paycheck. I don't know how any of my friends or family are ever going to get a house of their own.

Looks like there is a E85 gas station in my town, I'll use that next few tanks of gas. Do I need the yellow gas cap to run E85?

 

[swathdiver]

@swathdiver I keep telling myself that eventually things will settle down, right now our biggest struggle is taking care of our disabled 3.5 year old. Wifes job let her go because of all the time she would take off work to take him to his appointments and therapies so we are working on coasting by financially until we can get some IHSS income assistance for all the time she has to spend taking care of him but we keep getting denied. Feel liking I'm hanging onto the "American dream" by the skin of our teeth, I am more well off than everyone I know yet we are still basically living paycheck to paycheck. I don't know how any of my friends or family are ever going to get a house of their own.

Looks like there is a E85 gas station in my town, I'll use that next few tanks of gas. Do I need the yellow gas cap to run E85?

I don't know for sure, it's probably to designate the truck as FlexFuel. Hmm, I seem to remember people having rough idles with black caps on FlexFuel cars, this was years ago and I do not trust my memory. @gooffeyguy @iamdub @PG01

 

[Fless]

The only difference I can think of in the caps would be the color and the gasket material. The black cap might have a gasket that is not resistive to the E85, and might decay over time. But that's just conjecture on my part and if the gasket on yours is in good shape now, running E85 in the short term shouldn't cause any problems. Long term you may want to get the yellow cap for it, or run with the black cap and see what happens. The only job that cap has is to seal that filler neck.

If they put something in the tank it's not going to affect the evap system, at least not right away. It would be more fuel contamination than anything. But not knowing if they did add something, it's hard to tell if that's the case.

 

[Just Fishing]

I love my security cameras.
I also learned about motorcycle dash cams.
they have this little center box/dvr and can have several cameras!

I picked up one for my Jeep.
depending how it does, I might get another one to help cover the different views.
Main thing I like is I can keep it low key and prevent someone from breaking into the vehicle to steal it.

 

[Jimmyy]

Gas cap hack: hit a gas station or 2 and ask if they found your yellow gas cap. Most stations have a box full of gas caps.

 

[Dustin Jackson]

What would you guys do in this situation?

I'd like to think that they didn't put anything into the tank, there was plenty of items in my Tahoe they didn't steal so if they wanted to be malicious they could have and there was no evidence near or around the fuel fill hole that they tried to put anything in it. I hope it was just a tweaker looking for gas.

 

[OR VietVet]

You need to get a fuel sample and see what is floating in there or if it is cloudy or discolored. Then start the diagnosis for your running problems.

 

[Dustin Jackson]

@OR VietVet I am about 2 tanks of gas into this situation, would a fuel sample still be viable? Also how do you take a fuel sample?

 

[Just Fishing]

Have a tech2?

Might not hurt to look at fuel system data if you do.