No start after fuel fill-up

[Bill Horton]

I have a 1998 Ford Contour SE, 2.5l V6, MTX, with 209k miles that I bought in DEC 2016 with 146k. When I fill up the tank with gas the car will not start. I had to siphon out a couple of gallons of gas before I could get it to start and run, so now I just put in 3/4 of a tank. I’ve talked to many mechanics and friends who work on their own cars and no one has ever heard of this problem. I’ve searched both Contour forums and cannot find anything. I did find something similar on the Mercury Cougar forum since they share the same drive train, and they mentioned that the charcoal canister may need to be changed. Have you ever run across this and could it be the charcoal canister? And lately I get the equivalent of the old carburetor vapor lock if my car sits about 30 minutes and I try to start it again. Then I have to wait about an hour before it cools down enough to start again. I really enjoy driving the car and want to fix this issue so that I don’t get stranded again. Thanks.

Topic

[Billy]

Strange that many mechanics wouldn’t have heard of this problem. It’s a very common symptom of a bad purge valve. No CEL/codes?

[Author]

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