You guys asking about the “canister” he mentions. Go back and read the whole thread. This canister appears to be some sort of tool or compressed air bottle he used to clean the injectors.
Not a canister that is part of the car.
At least that’s the way I read it.

 

Yes exactly. You can buy them on Amazon to clean the injectors and also the top engine and intake valves.

My scanner will not read ethanol. I've looked everywhere. Will have to take it somewhere and pay I guess. Ethanol test kit is ordered and be here today.

I'm 99% sure that is going to be the problem based off what ivw read on here and my negative fuel trim.

 

Friend of mine put his scanner on. He works at Monroe and I stopped up quick to see if he could throw his SnapOn scanner on it. Sure enough, its reading ethanol content at 67%. he reset fuel trims but said the car would "relearn" the correct ethanol percent. I told him No it woudn't that's why I have the problem and it needs to be reset to zero through the scan tool.

He was extremely busy and i didn't have an appt so he said to drive it around for the day and we'd go from there. On the way to work it threw the code again and fuel trims right back to where they were. Going to see him again on Friday to get this alcohol percent reset. waiting for my gas test kit still.

 

Thanks for clarifying the canister, I wasn’t sure.

 

Parts store scanner read my ethanol %. Store guy said it wouldn’t, then found it. I seem to remember that nomenclature can vary. Could be wrong.

 

Could be you parts store had a different scanner?

 

tested gas today and it came out to be 5% ethanol. Definitely not 67% like the computer is saying. Also, clarified with the manufacturer of my scanner and it can NOT check alc %
hopefully getting this ethanol thing cleared up tomorrow but nothing is ever simple. I do predict a visit to the dealer for $118. I called them and asked what they would charge. he said it was a flat fee. I also noticed tonight my fuel pump sounding more noisy than usual, like grinding type sound. Still get good fuel pressure readings though.

Was hoping someone could shed some light on my theory of the car running better off the fuel rail injector canister cleaning tool. Fuel trims also return to normal. Is it because of the alcohols in the injector cleaner and the computer reading 67% ethanol? Keep in mind i mix a 50/50 of B12 chemtool and gas. More concentrated then dumping into tank. Basically the mixture more closely matches what the computer is reading? Or is it because you're not using the fuel pump (disabled when using a pressurized fuel rail canister) and have better or constant pressure feeding the fuel rail?

thoughts or suggestions are welcome. You all are probably tired of hearing it!

 

Grinding fuel pump noises are bad news, especially if the pump fails with a full tank, order a new one and change it. If your friend can’t reset the alcohol %, then yup off to the dealer, you don’t want you fuel pump failing at the dealer either. Unless you’re gonna pay them to change it.

 

You have proved yet another case of a GM FlexFuel car getting confused about the ethanol % in the tank.

How much room in the tank? I bet 8-10 gallons of E85 would cure your symptoms at least temporarily.

Any chance your car makes mostly very short trips? Any chance someone fails to turn off the motor when refueling? Any problems with the fuel level gage? Any possibility there's a fuel leak somewhere? Any other recent fuel system issues? All of these issues have been associated with this problem. Also, notably, the onset of cold weather.

There is no ethanol sensor. The car detects a refueling event based upon an increase in fuel level between shutdown & startup. It then calculates the % based upon O2 sensor data. Therefore, a bad #1 O2 sensor, leaks in the intake & exhaust, misfiring, a clogged or leaking injector... all can trigger this problem.

Maybe someone can find my prior post where I shared a link to a TSB that addressed the ethanol % problem. I couldn't find it, after at least an hour of effort.

I can't say that I understand exactly how much B12 was in your tank, but I can think of several way that the stuff might make a difference. Definitely a complicating variable tho.

 

The car is fixed! Made an appointment this time so the guy at monro didn't have to rush around this time. Also, want to clarify that I don't trust monro to do much more than mount tires and rotate them and they even screw that up! Busted up a TPMS sensor on the HHR then tried to pretend they didn't do it. That's just one of the few things! My buddy doesn't charge me most of the time I go there, so that's the perk!

He did in fact reset the fuel composition and then the trims. Been driving here and there all day to relearn itself and so far so good! I still don't know what tripped it up. I do know that it was like overnight. I did refuel one or two times like last month without shutting car off but like I said that was last month. I also have been back and forth between regular unleaded and E15 and the last few times i got gas I did not fill it all the way. There have also been a few time where I put ethanol free in. I have gas pumps where I work for our fleet cars and vans and they only buy ethanol free. So a few times i'd get a couple gallons to hold me over till I got paid. I did also have a few minor exhaust leaks I fixed last weekend but they were all after the cat.