WATER IN GAS TANK, FUEL FILLER COMPARTMNET ISSUE

[George Tobin]

Hopefully this posts! I have an 88 Ann. Ed Vette that I just paid major bucks to so that they could get the water out of the gas tank, and have the fuel injectors and fuel pump replaced (bacuise over 3 gallons of water got in my tank it RUINED the injectors - $$$$$. Has anyone had any luck going after Chevrolet to pay for these repairs - as I said they are related to a water filled fuel filling compartment - as the result of that one tiny little drain hole being overloaded (we had a major rain storm several weeks ago...also I believe it was really poor design for the vette to have the fuel filling compartment on then back deck anyway - water, etc, can run right into there off the rear window. Why did they not change that until 1997? the more I'm learning about how POORLY these cars were designed in term of stupid stuff like that, the less likley I will be to EVER buy another GM car again. I'm actually hoping to sell my Vette soon, because the last thing I want to do is find out what ELSE is going to fail now....and I only have 79,000 miles on mine!

THX!

[Joe L.]

Re: WATER IN GAS TANK, FUEL FILLER COMPARTMNET ISS

George-----

I would say that the chances of getting GM to pay to repair a problem like this on a car that is 16 years old is somewhere between "zip" and "zero". Except for a few safety-related type things, even "secret" warranties usually don't extend for anywhere near this period of time.

Corvettes had rear deck fuel fillers for MANY years----from 1963 right through 1996. As far as I know, the system used on C4s was pretty much the same, if not identical, for all the years of C4 production. It's also VERY similar to the system used for C3s. While the problem that you describe can occur, it's usually a result of plugging of the drain orifice/line from the filler compartment. It's true that this is the sort of thing that's pretty difficult to discern and maintain, but I believe that GM would still consider it a maintenence problem. Regardless, though, at this point in the car's life, whether it's an owner maintenence problem or a design problem is rather moot as far as getting GM to pay for associated repairs.

[Jim T.]

Re: WATER IN GAS TANK, FUEL FILLER COMPARTMNET ISS

George you are lucky to have an 88 Corvette with the fuel filling compartment design of the C4. I say this because I have known people who had had to pay big bucks to get their electric fuel pump replaced because the only way to remove the electric fuel pump is to remove the gas tank. Not so on the C4, your 88's electric fuel pump comes right out of the fuel filler access. In fact it is a pretty easy thing to do. With the access you have available you could of easily removed the water from inside the tank and installed a new fuel pump with a few hand tools. The same thing can be done with C3's. There is another place that you can check that may hold water because a drain hole is stopped up on your 88. Check out where the hood latches.

[Clem Z.]

Re: WATER IN GAS TANK, FUEL FILLER COMPARTMNET ISS

i am suprised you did not see this problem when you washed the car as i found this problem back in the 60s with mid years when i would open the gas filler cover to clean under it there would be water laying there.