The gas tank in my Crossfire doesn't seem to be venting because every time I put gas into it the nozzle shuts off after a few drops are pumped. This problem started about 4 months ago and the car has been to the dealer several times. The dealer has been stumped for a solution and has requested help from a Chrysler field engineer. Unfortunately I was told that it may be up to eight weeks before an engineer can make it to San Diego. I called my service manager today for an update after waiting a month, only to be told that he no longer works at the dealership. I left my name, number, and a description of my problem with his replacement, but she (yes, a woman) has not called back. Not an encouraging start here. Guess I'll stop by the dealership tomorrow after work to find out what's up.

But there is even worse news concerning my car. After pulling into work this morning I noticed my cup holder proudly deployed like it OD on Viagra.

I always considered my Spirit as unreliable but after a year and a half of problems with the Crossfire, I now know what unreliability really is. Maybe I should be taking my car to a priest...

 

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I had that problem on a previous car. The check valve in the filler neck was stuck in the closed position so it would not let gas into the tank. You could fill up the neck and then wait for it to seep past the valve into the tank. Filling up the tank was a very slow process. According to the service manual, the check valve on the Crossfire can't be repaired so the whole gas tank has to be replaced.

 

I was wondering if Mike had taken off. I had an appointment a couple weeks ago that Mike had set up. When I went to drop it off he wasn't there so another service writer said he would take my car in. It was a few minutes into the write-up when he said that he would be handling my car from now on. I didn't think anything of it at the time till you wrote this post. I was helped by a fellow by the name of John K. He was really nice and called me when he said he would. All in all I think he is a good alternative to Mike.

Was your car in there for a supercharger replacement? They told me that they had one in there where the supercharger pulley sheared off. They ended up replacing the entire supercharger assembly.

 

AMGlover and C_P - Thanks for the quick responses about the gas tank but my dealer had already replaced the tank. When the problem continued, the dealer then replaced everything else in the system, or so I was told. That's why the dealer is stumped and wants to get an engineer involved. Of course it's possible that the replacement tank is defective.

Matt - That was most certainly my car you were told about, since I think we have the only supercharged Crossfires in SD. What actually happened with my car was that the supercharger clutch had failed. The plan was for me to continue driving it while waiting on a replacement supercharger (the clutch is integral to the supercharger so the whole assy had to be replaced). After several days of driving the supercharger pulley popped off it's shaft and did some damage grinding into some emission piping. The accessory belt also came off. I kind of suspect that the pulley was loosened during troubleshooting but Mike swore that they did not touch it. So my supercharger was replaced, not because of the pulley but because of a bad clutch. Incidentally, of all of the problems I've had with my car, this was the only one that prevented me from driving it.

As for Mike, I think he treated me very well and I was really worried about the quality of service with another manager. It's annoying to have all of the problems I've had but at least I could always count on Mike to get my car fixed. But after talking to my new service manager, Kathryn, it looks like things may even be better. She said to drop my car off at my convenience and the dealership will get the engineer in to look at it. So the dealership went from telling me that it may be up to two months to get a field engineer out to SD to telling me that they were ready for the car. Not sure what the full story is here - is there really a field engineer? Did Mike make a mistake telling me one was not available for weeks? Did someone at Rancho count the number of times I've been in and started worrying about the lemon law (going to have to have a lot more problems before I would even consider that)?

So I dropped the car off this evening and am now driving an extremely torqueless and wallowy 2007 PT Cruiser loaner. And yes, my cupholder will be replaced.

 

I just purchased my roadster and the dealership told me about this issue and warned me not to overfill the tank on fill ups, when the nozzle kicks off, stop the fill. I have a bad habit of trying to bring the fuel all the way up the neck . After the warning and reading your post I will no longer overfill on fill ups.

 

Man that is crazy! I'm glad to hear that they were able to replace the blower though. Do you know how long it took for them to get the assembly in stock?Yea he was a nice service writer but he didn't listen to me which made it frustrating. My intercooler water pump bit the dust and I took it into them and told them that these pumps are notorious for failing. Well one of their techs took it out and compared it to another SRT and said that they drove the same I asked them if I could take a tech out on a ride-a-long so that I can "demonstrate" the lack of power. Well to make a long story short the tech finally "saw" what I was talking about and agreed that there was something wrong. All this while I am telling him about the intercooler water pump problem too and it just wasn't sinking in. It's as if there're thinking, "how can this consumer know more about this car than me, a technician?" When I took the car back in I also took in several printouts from both this forum and the MBWorld forum relating to the intercooler water pump. That seemed to do the trick. From what I understand there might very well be a Crossfire trained tech there because they said they were giving it to the "tech who knows Crossfires".

 

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I was in the middle of a new reply and managed to erase it, so here goes again:

My new service rep called today and said a rep was flying out to SD tomorrow to look at my car.

TerryXfire - I think the real issue with overfilling the tank is that excess gas will overflow into the carbon canister and ruin the carbon. In case all of this is new to you, there is a container filled with carbon that is connected to the gas tank. The idea here is that gas vapors will be held by the carbon instead of getting into the air. These vapors will eventually be routed to the engine. If you download the service manual there is a good illustration of all of this. I believe our Crossfires are OK to overfill since there is no warning in the owner's manual. And welcome to the forum.

Matt - It took about two weeks for the supercharger to come in. It took another 4 days or so to get it installed. Mike actually called me and said the installation was far more involved then they originally supposed.

AMGlover - 1. Up to now I've been thinking that the problem was venting related because of the tank already being changed out. But the symptom really does support a stuck check valve in the filler neck.

2. I've had the car to at least two different stations and have used a number of pumps so the problem is not pump related.

3. I don't really jam the nozzle in, but I do shift it around to see if that makes a difference. It doesn't. One thing I've noticed is that after having the new tank installed, the filler neck can be moved around a tad. I never noticed that before, but then again I wasn't shifting the nozzle around before either. Can anyone else get their filler neck to move a little bit?

4. This sounds like a variation of ghostriding.

Excellent suggestion with the garden hose. I'll see if I can talk to the rep and get him (or her) to try this. If the rep is not game then I'll get my car back and try it myself.

 

Yea mine does.

 

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I can move mine a little.

 

Update Update Update.

Serviced manager called again, said that the rep had gone over the car with the tech and determined that the replacement tank is bad so another one is on order. The tank can't be shipped overnight because it's a tank so it is shipping by Spanish Galleon and will take 5 - 7 days to get in. Guess the overnight shippers think the tank will be filled with gas. So I'm still on my first set of tires and will soon be on my third gas tank.

The service manager also said that I can keep the loaner ('07 PT Cruiser) until they finish with my car. Since I don't have an extended warranty the base warranty will only cover a loaner for five days, so this is pretty nice.

 

Resurrecting this thread from the dead to report that I picked up my car this evening after work. Haven't tried gassing it up yet but the dealer had put about 3 gallons in already and I can't believe they would let the car go if there was still a problem.

Kind of hoping I have another problem in the future so I have a chance of getting a rental '07 Sebring or Avenger to drive. Really am interested in what those cars are like.

 

This may or may not help. I had the same issue. Took me 3 yrs. to figure it out. I resolved it by not pulling so close to the pump. When you pull real close to the pump, the hose / nozzle is in more of a 'V' shape (for lack of a better term) when placed into the compartment. This apparently restricts the gas flow.

Parking farther away from the pump, it will allow the hose to relax (more of a 'U' shape), and allows gas to flow.

 

I understand the problem you had but mine was definitely due to either a stuck check valve or overflow valve in the tank.