Strong smell of petrol

dandemann8 · Post by **dandemann8** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:18 pm

Every now and again when standing in traffic I get a strong smell of petrol

, I'm not that up on the mechanical side of thing's but was wondering if one of the spark plug's is duff and if so which sort of spark plug is reccomended

mikexgough · Post by **mikexgough** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 8:28 am

Not a V6/2.0 owner but have had petrol cars......... could be a small weep or a crack in a fuel pipe.....the problem with petrol is it smells terrible and it can be hard to find the "leak".......as it's happening in traffic and with a hot engine........sounds like the pipe is "expanded" when the engine is hot and hence the smell....if that makes sense....

apole · Post by **apole** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:39 am

Hi there,

Firstly I would get this checked out in case you have a leak.

It could be many things, you can check the spark plugs by taking on a run, letting it cool and then taking each one out and seeing what it's like, it should be a grey/brown colour if all is running well. I doubt it's this though as you'd know if one or more plugs wasn't working, the car would run badly.

So you could have a leak in a pipe somewhere, or it could be the charcoal cannister (black plastic tub under the passenger seat attached to the chassis), or perhaps the breather on the fuel tank. Is there a hiss when you take the petrol cap off, and if so can you tell if air is rushing in or out?

Also check out the fuel lines and the fuel filter.

The tank or filling tube could have a leak too.

What is your fuel economy like, has this changed recently.

Did you overfill the tank recently, I did this once by accident when the pump didn't cut out and it smelt for quite a while.

Petrol stinks so only a small amount can make a big smell.

Hope this helps.

Andy

dandemann8 · Post by **dandemann8** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:55 pm

Fuel economy ok, first got a whiff of it on our way back from Bakewell at the weekend. First job this weekend will be trying to identify possible causes. All suggestions seem possible so I'm in for a busy saturday morning (get's me out of the weekend shop)

.

Will post my findings hopefully.

Post by **g8dhe** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:08 pm

Just a thought it is petrol and not hot oil your smelling ? Only say that as the oil on the hot exhaust is a well reported problem with the V6's

dandemann8 · Post by **dandemann8** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:25 pm

g8dhe wrote:Just a thought it is petrol and not hot oil your smelling ? Only say that as the oil on the hot exhaust is a well reported problem with the V6's

I'm quite sure it's petrol.

Strong smell of petrol

Strong smell of petrol

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