What is Vapor Lock?
Although vapor lock is not often seen in modern cars, it is a common problem with the carbureted cars of past decades. Vapor lock causes a car to stop running when the fuel lines overheat; cars sitting on the side of the road with their hoods raised used to be a common sight, particularly on hot days. Vapor locking primarily happens in cars with carbureted engines, but since electronic fuel injection replaced carburetors in the 1980s, most car owners don’t have to deal with vapor lock anymore. Carburetors and electronic fuel injection are two different methods of delivering the proper amounts of fuel to the engine. Fuel injection is more advanced, and requires a computer to tell the injectors how much gasoline to squirt into the engine. A carburetor, on the other hand, is a mechanical device that uses the engine’s natural vacuum, allowing specific amounts of fuel to be sucked into the combustion chambers. The amount of fuel that is delivered to the engine can be changed using simple me
How do I fix it? Do I have to pull the carburetor off and completely rebuild it to replace the float? Is there some way to test the fuel pump pressure without taking it to a garage and having it hooked up to gauges? I am having some kind of fuel problem but it does not happen all the time. These are some of the things I think could be wrong. Thanks, Suzie Answer: Vapor lock occurs when the fuel in the fuel system gets to hot to stay a liquid (boils). Keeping the fuel lines away from the heat (exhaust pipe, etc) will usually stop this from happening. Removing the top of the carburetor is all that is necessary to replace the float. The fuel pump can be tested on the vehicle. Repair Topics / Car Vapor Lock Look up your throttle body injection question in our Car Repair forum section. Got Car Repair Questions? We will answer it for FREE! Related Subjects • How to use a Engine Code Scanner • Replace Front Brake Pads • Change Oil Filter • Change Air Filter • How to Tune Up your engine • Chec
