Questions and Answers

Cavalier Gas Smell Q. I recently replaced my gas tank (the old one was leaking). It is a 1990 Chevy Cavalier 6 cylinder 3.1 liter engine. It was a simple operation but now I have gas smell and do not see any leaks anywhere. The only thing that I am starting to wonder about is, if I maybe crossed the hook-up of two of the small gas lines that come out of the gas tank.

My car has the fuel pump, the main gas line that goes to the fuel filter and then two more smaller pipes, all mounted together going inside the tank. Could you tell me what these two smaller lines are for and if I indeed connected them the wrong way, what will be the affect? The car seems to run ok.

Any help you can give me would be appreciated,
Lou

A. The lines that are on the fuel pump assembly are the main fuel feed, fuel return line and vapor line. The vapor line goes to the charcoal canister in the engine compartment and absorbs the gas fumes when the car is not running. If they are reversed, you may get raw gas in the canister and get the strong gas smell. The easiest way to check this is to reverse the lines and the smell should go away.

Since there are different systems for Federal, Canadian and California models, I can't say what you have there. There is an emissions routing diagram under the hood that will tell you which system you have and where the lines should run.

Additional Information provided courtesy of ALLDATA