Stalling after refueling

My daughter recently bought a '99 SL1 (50K miles and manual transmission),
and it runs fine except for "bucking", as she calls it, shortly after
refueling. After fueling, it will run for a mile or so, and then start
lurching and stumbling. Downshifting helps a little bit, but she ends up
having to pull over to the side of the road and let it sit for half an hour
or more. After that, it runs fine again. The first time it happened she
had it towed to the dealer. When they checked it the next day, they
couldn't find anything wrong.

It sounds to me like water in the gas tank, so we've told her to run Heet
through it. She doesn't drive it much (a tank lasts several weeks), so
she's only been able to run two cans through, and it hasn't cleared up yet.

Does anyone have any other ideas, or is this a common problem with these
cars?

 

Maybe check the gas cap, to see if it is venting as it should. And /or try
filling only 1/2 of what it would take to fill it full. To see if it is
still "bucking".

 

Also check the fuel filter.

 

Hi There,

I work for a Saturn dealership, and this has happened to several of our
customers. Our service manager believes the problem can be caused by
two things:

(1) a loose gas cap

(2) filling the tank with the engine running.

Both cause problems with the pressure in the tank.