The “Check Fuel Fill Inlet” warning light that pops up on a vehicle’s dashboard is certainly no cause for celebration for any driver or car owner. It’s nice to drive a car equipped with a message center in the dashboard, giving you easy and convenient access to a very wide range of information about your car.
Your car’s message center can provide valuable information like your average fuel consumption, trip odometers, and much more. The fact that you have such a convenient pipeline for news about how your car is doing doesn’t mean the news will always be good. If you’re like the rest of us, you’re definitely not celebrating the “Check Fuel Fill Inlet” warning light glowing on your dashboard.
Many drivers don’t have a clue what the warning means, even drivers who are familiar with the Check Fuel Fill Inlet warning light. Even if you’ve seen it before, it’s a bad idea to just pretend the thing isn’t there and hope it goes away as suddenly as it appeared. It’s a good thing you’re reading this because you’re going to learn what the “Check Fuel Fill Inlet” warning light means and what you can do about it.
So, What Is the Check Fuel Fill Inlet Light?
As the name implies, the Check Fuel Inlet Light means there’s a problem with the fuel inlet, –the area where you introduce gasoline into your vehicle.
If your car was a human being, the fuel inlet would start from the lips through the mouth and down the throat. It just means your car’s fuel inlet includes the gas cap and the inlet pipe that connects to the gas tank.
If you thought a person’s mouth is an essential part of his body, then you can understand the importance of your car’s fuel inlet. It would be a real challenge to top off your car with the fuel it needs to drive without a functional fuel inlet. So, your vehicle’s gas cap and the inlet pipe should be your primary area of focus should you get the “Check Fuel Fill Inlet” warning.
So What Does the Check Fuel Fill Inlet Light Mean?
As stated earlier, you should focus on your car’s fuel inlet area, especially the gas cap, if the “Check Fuel Fill Inlet” light shows up on your vehicle’s message center. An obvious leakage or not-so-obvious evaporation due to a faulty gas cap can trigger the Check Fuel Fill Inlet warning light. Of course, the first thing you want to do to remedy the situation is to pull over, remove the gas cap, and put it back on properly.
Perhaps, the warning light is a simple case of not tightening the gas cap properly the last time you visited the gas station. This approach should resolve the issue and “disappear” the Check Fuel Fill Inlet warning light. But if it doesn’t, it just means your gas cap wants you to work a bit harder to show it a bit more love.
What Else Can You Do?
Before you ask what else you can do to fix the Check Fuel Fill Inlet issue you should have tried taking out and replacing the gas cap securely. That should fix the issue if the problem is a case of an improperly placed or loose gas cap.
But other things besides a loose gas cap can cause the warning light to come on, including:
- A vacuum pressure leak in the fuel inlet
- An over-tightened gas cap,
- Debris in the fuel inlet
- A damaged gas cap
- Or the gas cap is missing altogether.
Visit your local mechanic if you’ve ticked off every item on the list and the warning light is still scrolling across your car’s message center.
You might even realize that you just have to replace the gas cap to make the “Check Fuel Fill Inlet” warning light disappear. You’d prefer that to a vacuum pressure leak in your fuel fill inlet.
Wrapping Up
Can you drive your car with the “Check Fuel Fill Inlet” warning light turned on? Sure, you can. Do you want to be that guy driving a car with a fuel tank leaking evaporative emissions? No, you don’t because it is dangerous, would affect your car’s fuel economy, and can lead to more serious problems with the car’s EVAP system.
