I read several posts by several different people who said they have experienced loud bangs when driving, usually slowly.

Yesterday I was going at a crawl through the mall parking lot.. there was a guy walking next to me.. All of a sudden there was a real loud BANG that came from the rear of the car. It sounded like someone slammed the trunk hatch, only nobody did of course. It wasn't a backfire I don't believe.. it was more of a metallic banging sound. There was absolutely no vibration throughout the car, just the noise. I was like what the heck was that... the guy walking next to my car kind of jumped and started looking at me and the car.. I rolled down my window and asked him did you hear that? He says yeah that was certainly loud enough to get my attention! The look he was giving me was like he thought the car was going to blow up.. I was just like oh well whatever, thanks, and drove off. If I didn't read on here previously about the same thing, I probably would have been worried as hell too. You'd think if it was the tranny I'd probably have felt something since mine is manual.

So how many people have experienced this after all? Any idea what on earth it could be?

 

Hi,

I have just changed fuel tank on my Xfire which imploded and holds only about 40 L of gassoline. Fuel tank is metal made and when imploding it makes this metal sound which You heard. Have Your dealer check Your fuel tank. I believe mine was the first case of something like this. And they discovered it because they heve to change catalzyer which was blown apart. My car has 10000 km's now and it has been serviced for 60 days alltogether. Unfortunatelly I'm in Croatia so there is no lemon law here.

 

I don't think you need a Lemon law if the dealer changed the tank and solved whatever problem.

When you say the tank imploded what do you really mean; did the sides cave in and now the tank took only 40 litres of fuel??
What is the 'catalzyer' that they changed? Was this related to the imploding??
Do you know what causes the imploding?? Do you remember how much fuel you had in the tank when this occurred (bang sound)??

Sorry to ask so many questions, but this problem is really an interesting one and we should gain as much info as possible.

 

I have an EX-wife that implodes every other day !!

 

implodes or explodes? Depends on their temperament I guess.

 

Figura:
For it to implode there must be something taking the air out of the fuel tank yet not allowing air to get in to replenish it. It seems that it is a fault in the sealed emission control system. What did the dealer say was the fix? It would be nice to know before we hear the bang!
Do we start drilling holes in our gas caps? That's a whole new issue! Hah!Hah!

 

The other day I was on the Long Island Expressway doing about 70 - 75 MPH and heard a loud thump/bang. To my wife and myself it sounded like it came from the front of the car. I thought I had hit something in the road. When I had a chance I pulled over and checked for damage, none to be found. There wasn't any other noise preceeding the thump, no vibration or anything of that sort. The sound has not reappeared as yet. I don't know if this is similiar to the sound that Figura experience. Would like to know also if anyone else has experienced the same sound. I also checked the garage floor for any fluids, and didn't see any which is a always a good thing.

 

Did you check your gas tank like the guys in the threads above? I would be very interested if this is a problem with the sealed fuel system? Thanks

 

Exactly, the sides cave in. and the tank holds about 40 litres. tehy were all surprised that the tank was made of metal instead of plastic. I heard this bang several times but no one noticed anything while in service because there is a metal plate underneath the tank to protect it. When suddenly my catalytic converter (which regulates emission) blowed up and they had to replace it they took off that metal plate and noticed the imploded fuel tank.I've had about 20 liters of fuel when I first heard this sound and it occured while standing with the car.

Funny it took them 35 days to get new fuel tank which is made in the USA. As they explained to me this was all somehow related because the air couldn't go in the tank to equalize pressure.

 

If I understand this correctly, you were standing with the car (not sure if engine running?) and heard the bang noise; and later the catalytic converter blew up (not sure how you knew that?) and then when you took it in to have the converter replaced they checked the gas tank and noticed the metal side had caved in so they then arranged to replace the gas tank.
The problem with the catalytic converter caused the problem with the gas tank or was it the other way around?????

 

Correctly. engine was running. I think catalitic converter has no direct connection with what happened to gas tank it just appears that they noticed that gas tank has imploded when they were changing converter (left exhaust). I tried to warn them before all that that I heard loud bang, but it was impossible to reproduce it at will, so the mechanics said that's nothing to worry. It appears that I was right at the end.

 

How did you know there was a problem with the catalytic converter (blew up?)?

 

Wow, I totally forgot about this post and then today I see there are two pages on it!

Anyway the reason I was concerned at the time is because I recalled reading that other people had heard the same bang, when going very slowly, like I was.

Since then I have not heard the sound again.

It was very strange at the time, as the guy walking next to my car actually heard it too, and we both agreed its not a sound the car should make. lol

If I hear it again I'll bring it in and tell them what I heard about the fuel tank 'imploding', but this is the first I heard about that!

 

NJspeed69:
I would suggest you take it in now as the damage may already be done. If your system greated a vacuum for some reason, chances are it may continue until your gas tank holds about a gallon to fill.
After the original implod, I would suspect it would be a lot quieter if it implods again as the metal on your tank may already have stress creases.
Figura:
The question is , what did the Dealer tell you was the reason, that it effectively created a vacuum in the system to cause it to implod? If air is not getting into the system to equalize pressure, then what did they do to remedy the problem for the future? Sounds like somenthing in your emission control system went amiss. Would be great if you could get an answer so we can avoid it happening to the rest of us. Heck, if they just changed your tank without fixing the problem, you'll be back. Good Luck!

 

I was driving on the highway about 220 km/h when suddenly engine started to slow down and then shut off. I was unable to start the car again, so I thought maybe I was out of gas. Fortunately I was 1 km from gas station so I bought some gas and then tried to start the engine again. I managed somehow to start it but it was running like on 4 cylinders but I came to the gas station and I have called Chrysler privilege Service which sent mechanic, towing car and replacement car. While inspecting the car we saw some black metal particles coming from left exhaust pipe and the mechanics guess was that the converter blew off (he was correct).

 

They don't know the reason but presumethe air was not getting in the system. They were explicit that there is no connection between converter failure and tank implosion. At least we know xfire has very very strong fuel pump....

 

Please tell me you meant "120 km/hr"....if you WERE going 220 km/hr (136 mi/hr) for any extended period of time, I'm not surprised something blew up.

 

Does that surprise you that he may have been going 136mph; I would expect the Xfire could withstand that for awhile (with all maintenance issues being ok). Isn't top speed about 150mph?

 

Figura: Thanks for the info. The long and short of it is, because the emission control system is sealed to keep exhaust gases from entering the air, the air replacing the space previously occupied by gas seems to have stopped thereby causing a terrific vacuum and imploding the tank. Funny thing is, I would have thought it would starve itself of gas before imploding. What cut off the replacement air? Anyone?
Sorry that I only have questions and no answers.

 

I can't help but think that the converter problem was related to this tank imploding; don't know how but both are related to emission control and the problems occurred very close together. If not, it had to be a big coincidence!???