Expert: Van - 10/28/2005

Question
i have a 1990 buick regal limited and everything
in it is computerized and for some reason the car will shut off on its own and wont start back up for atleast 1 hour i was told it was the coil pack so i got a new one and had it instald and it still cept doing the same thing but i can drive the car a couple miles up the road and go to friends houses befor it dies but as soon as i get into the driveway and i shut the car off  myself it wont start back up for 1 hour and since the only place i ever go is right up the road ive notice that my car eats gas really really bad and everytime i get out of my car after going somewere i can smell gas really bad so can my car be vapor locking  

Answer
Hi Steffanie,
Vapor locking only happens if the fuel lines get very very hot, like from the exhaust system, and boil the gas inside the line, forming a big bubble of vapor, which acts like a spring in the line, not allowing the pump to move fuel.
I sincerely doubt yours is vapor locking.
But it is possible there is an injector leaking, and flooding the engine.
Depending on what type of injection system it has, it could be fairly easy to check, or quite involved.
Fuel pressure testing is something else that might need done.
But that smell is from raw gas flooding the engine, and it could be creating a fire hazzard, so get it checked out pretty soon.
The hour wait is the time required for the gas to evaporate, so there must be a pretty large amount involved, and your comment about eating a lot of gas also sounds like that.

Van