What caused gasoline to gum up

Asked by Tonymisfire Dec 10, 2017 at 09:39 AM about the 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 4WD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

My jeep was having misfire problems. First I
changed all the plugs d ur to that being the
cheapest route. That didn't work. Then eventually
the jeep didn't start. Just turn over but wouldn't
start. So I figured pump. So I ordere a new fuel
pump and as I dumped all the old gas from the
thank I found a big thing of brown slime/sludge. It
was also in the bottom of my fuel pump clogging
the first filter. I put the new pump in with fresh gas
and the jeep started but is still reading multiple
misfires. I'm thinking that sludge made it to the
injectors??? Any ideas on what has caused this
sludge. Note my car had  pump issues 3 month
before with ponly 86k on it. That had white slime in
the tank.

3 Answers

45,255

my guess is that the modern gas is different because of the ethanol in it- I have not researched this, so I may be wrong, but common wisdom has it that you can not let a car sit with modern gas in it- you don't say if your car sat for any length of time, but I'm wondering if leaving gas in a tank and always keeping it full could form sludge? I have never thought of this- anyway, it is common for cars that sit, old cars with modern gas in the tank, to need a gas tank cleaning BEFORE it is started for the first time- if started with the sludge, it will make its way to the carb, or worse, to the injectors, and coat the entire fuel system with "sludge" idk- you have SEEN the stuff, and you have described it pretty well here, what do you think?

The vehicle hasn't sat for than a week since we have bought it. Lately the longest it sat was 2 or 3 days. I just hoping it didn't do anymore damage. And I'm hoping no one us messing with me. After I found this I purchased locking gas caps for my vehicles.

40,075

locking gas cap is a good idea because I was going to ask if it may have been tampered with , I don't think the vehicle is that old for that much crap to be in the tank

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