Bad, bad fuel smell

1hot87gt

5 Year Member
Mar 17, 2017
416
330
93
New York
Hey guys. Figured I’d come to the experts before I panic. Had supercharger installed a few months back. Tank was dropped for install of 340lph pump. Car making awesome power and running mint. I’ve started it every couple weeks since the install, and the fuel was treated with all the winter stuff, but haven’t really taken her out. Had a little time to myself yesterday so I ran her around the neighborhood because I know the weather gonna stop me from doing so soon. Had about 1/2 tank of fuel, so I ran to gas station and filled it all the way to full, til fuel filler clicked off. Full. This morning when I went to work the garage stunk bad of gas. When I got home got under car checked everywhere. No leaks. Then I noticed a little bit of fuel just at one of those little openings on that plastic cover that covers fuel tank. Nothing is on floor. Anywhere. What I’m thinking is either the filler neck or something on top side of tank leaked a bit since I filled it all the way up, and settled in that plastic cover. Should I panic? Car is in garage attached to house. Should I pull it out of garage? I opened windows which aired it out pretty good. Gonna call shop in the morning, they are closed today, but want to see if you guys think this scenario makes sense and whether I should be ok for now.
 
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There are two seals on top of the tank for the pump and one for the sending unit. 3 actually, there's also a vapor vent on top. There is a seal/grommet that the filler neck goes into on the right side of the tank as well, but that one would definitely leak if it was bad, especially if you filled up the tank all the way. That seal/grommet would leak out a lot of fuel if it was bad. My guess is one of the seals on the top is letting fumes and or fuel out of the tank.
 
Lol. No camp fires. And probably right about those seals. Thinking back now, there was an issue with the fuel gauge not reading correctly, and tank had to be dropped twice to swap out a defective sending unit. Maybe with playing with it multiple times, the seal was compromised.

Thanks everybody.
 
When I dropped my tank to upgrade the fp I didn't get the vent seated correctly,
noticed it when I filled up at the pump.
Needless to say I had to drop the tank again and seal correctly.
 
I’m a little late to this party, but a while ago I was chasing what I thought was a fuel leak in my wife’s Escape. Turned out the vapor lines were deteriorating and became porous. Filled the garage with fumes real quick after pulling in.

Might be worth a quick check on the lines running to charcoal canister.
 
Turned out to be the o-ring on the sending unit. It was either pinched or just not centered. But they took it down, cleaned everything up, new o-ring, assembled, and all good. No more leak or smell. Changed the rubber grommet on side of tank that the filler neck slides into as well. It didn’t appear to be leaking, but while tank was down it made sense.
 
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Turned out to be the o-ring on the sending unit. It was either pinched or just not centered. But they took it down, cleaned everything up, new o-ring, assembled, and all good. No more leak or smell. Changed the rubber grommet on side of tank that the filler neck slides into as well. It didn’t appear to be leaking, but while tank was down it made sense.

Glad you didn't have to do that with a full tank of gas in it. Glad its fixed.
 
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Thanks guys. Again with the campfires. Lol. Anyway developed a new issue on way back from shop. Car does not want to go to into winter hibernation peacefully. Driving home noticed volt gauge sitting at 12 when cruising on highway. That’s new. Usually between 13-14. Got home, plugged in to trickle charger. Took a while but battery back up to full charge. I’m thinking an alternator issue? Gonna test it with a voltmeter to be sure, at battery not running, then at battery running. Car was converted over to 3G years ago and put a 130amp alternator in at that time. I think the 130amp is sufficient, electric fan and stereo amp, but saw PA performance makes a 200 amp. Would that plug in to my existing setup, and if so, would it be too much power and overheat the existing wires and possibly cause a fire. Like I said the 130 amp would probably be fine but would always like to go bigger as long as it would not be detrimental to the car.
 
Is it possible the guys at the shop ran your fuel pump (key on, engine off) with the fuel line disconnected to empty some of your full tank of gas? Maybe drained the battery a bit. See how it looks again now that you have the battery charged back up.
 
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Good thinking, but I watched them drain the tank. Car was on lift and they used a portable 12v power pack directly to the fuel pump wires to pump out about 5 gallons. Enough to lighten it up and to make sure fuel wouldn’t get all over the place before they dropped the tank. I really think the car was running off it’s battery, which was fully charged when I left for the shop since it was plugged in to the Battery Tender and then slowly started to run down. I won’t know that until I get the chance to throw the volt meter on it. Plus the fact when I got car home and plugged it back in to the charger, it took a really long time to get back to 100%. It usually is pretty quick. Battery shouldn’t have been that drained. And even if the battery was bad, which I don’t believe to be the case, wouldn’t the volt gauge in the car have been reading 13-14 while it was running? I’m no mechanic by any means, just have a hunch.