Hey all, recently I've been smelling gas from my rear end. I also have a hatch seal leak and it gets strong when it rains because water gets into the rear compartment. My question is this, is there any way for gas to leak fromt he tank into the rear hatch area? Because several of the towels I put back there to absorb water now smell like gas.

Is this a product of someone spilling gas by accident into the rear hatch area? How long would the smell linger? Or am I somehow leaking gas into the rear hatch.

BTW, when I had a puddle of water in there I could see what looked like an oiley residue on the surface of the water. Ya'know, all the swirling multiple colors bit.

PLEASE help! This is important! I won't drive this car till I figure out where this gas smell is coming from! I don't want to end up on the front page of some newspaper!

 

Hmm.. do you have any audio stuff back there that is screwed in? Cause if you screw in too far into "the hump", you can puncture the gas tank.

 

Not at all, and we just had it the carpet out to do the shocks. I checked while the carpet was out. There are no puncture marks in the metal.

Is there any way for gas to leak into the rear hatch? Because I saw the residue floating on the carpet after a heavy rain. I mean I had an inch of standing water in there and I could see the oily residue on the surface of the water. I notice its been getting pretty strong lately. The more it rains the stronger it smells. Could it just be a left over residue on the carpet from a previous spill?

I suppose I should remove the hatch carpet and leave it out for a few days after cleaning the metal surfaces thoroughly. If the smell dissapears then I suppose the capret really needs to be cleaned. If it doesn't then I'm in a bit more trouble.

 

I really have no idea how gas could get into the hatch without the tank being punctured

Maybe someone else can help more

 

I don't think it could be rust because the underside of my car is EXTREMILY clean. The only places I can even find a hint of rust are on the exhaust manifolds(okay, LOTS of rust there), exhaust pipe, and the A-arms. Everything is so clean.

I'll pull the carpet again tomorow when I have some free time. I'll check over it really good and take lots of pics. But this is confusing.

 

running rich with an exhaust leak?

 

Well what you need to do is get someone to turn the key on and while the Fuel pump is priming up see if you can find any gas leaks under the car.

You could have a leak ontop of the tank. The gas is spraying from the top lines and when driving it sprays back into a small hole under the car and then the carpet aborbs it. Its very possible.

As well I would check into the running rich with an exhaust leak, that could really give you a gas smell.

 

It doesn't seem to be running rich. The exhaust is pretty much invisible once its warmed up. Its a brand new motor, though one of my hoses could be bad.

 

Get a piece of card board that can fit under your rear end and fill your tank up before you go home. Put the cardboard under the car and let it sit for the night, best done when its dry. If you find gas on it, then my guess would be with the seal on top of the tank.

 

it could vary well be a bad hose or something...

 

Bill, if its nice this weekend, maybe we could get together and i can give you a hand. When we went to Crete, i only smelled gas the first part of the trip, after we had went for awhile, the smell was gone.

Have you put gas in the car since then? Maybe it is only leaking when it is full?

 

It is possible tim. Yeah, the smell does go away but it comes back when the car sits. Or rather when the air isn't moved around. I'm thinking i may rip the rear carpet out for the time being and give the metal a good cleaning. If the smell dissapears then I've found my problem. If not, then I may be getting it from somewhere.

The new ride is a great improvment over the orignal blown strut ride. ^_^ My electrical drain came back though. It seems it may be because of my headlights. Battery was 100% dead this morning, when I hooked the charger up the headlight motor turned on! All accesories were off too!

Actually Tim, I plan on doing the tilt column this weekend. Never done it on any car, EVER. If you wanna help me with that I'd be greatful. Aside from pulling the carpet and checking for puncture marks then I don't know where to go next without dropping the tank.....ugh. I don't want to do that if I don't have to!

 

wasnt there a recall on the gas fillers??

 

Too much Taco Bell? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

You might try replacing the hatch seal and see if the smell goes away. At least you can isolate it to the outside of the car. Something is probably leaking slowly enough that it evaporates instead of leaving a puddle.

I had the same problem in an old beater Impala I used to drive. You'd smell gas, but never see any on the ground... until the fuel line rusted all the way through and I went out to go to work one morning & there was a lake of gas under the car.

 

That happened to me once, the valet didn't close the headlights all the way, and my battery was bad. Kinda sucked, because it was Homecoming in Malibu, and they parked my car in the mud.
Get your battery tested if it's under warranty and replace it. There seems to be some drain when the lights are only partly closed/raised. Dunno why tho.

 

Its a brand new battery. So no, the battery isn't the reason its dead. I have other, more severe electrical issues that I have little understanding of.

 

Well, 9d1burd, and 9d1formula350 came over today to help with my tilt column, but while Tim and I worked the tilt column over, Andrew ripped the rear carpet out of the car. It was SATURATED with gas! It was a little damp, and it reaked of gas, but i couldn't find any holes in the body work that would lead to the gas tank. The ones that were there did NOT smell like gas at all. I practically stuck my nose in them to smell too! There is a small gas smell coming from the back though. The whole rear area needs time to dry out, and I"ll be cleaning it tomorow with some soap and water to cut the smell. After it dries I'll leave the carpet out for a few days to trouble shoot it. If the gas smell remains then I have other problems. If not then we've solved this issue.

For once, I actually feel like some work has been accomplished on my car!

 

Carpets out, but the gas smell sometimes returns when I take a turn. Meaning that I probably have a leak somewhere. :*(

Since both left and right turns are causing brief instances of gas smell then I can assume its probably on the top of the tank instead of the sides. Is there a way to check for leaks without dropping the tank, or can anyone offer tips on how to go about dropping the tank?

Yes, I know to empty the tank first. No use in spilling gas and blowing myself to kingdom come.

 

*double post*

 

Sorry to hear that bill, it will be no fun dropping your tank.

I did mine last year when my fuel pump went south. At least you can put a new pump in when its down

Let me know if you are gonna do this your self, i will come out and help if so. I am not sure how a tank can be repaired safely. I am sure someone will chime in with that info though.

How did the tilt job finish up?

 

Don't forget that recall on the filler neck where it attaches to the tank.

Andy.

 

Andy, that recall doesn't apply to my car. Besides, I have other problems now.

Tim, remember how my tranny had some minor problems? Well, they aren't minor anymore. I lost the clutch pack for the 1-2 shift. Gone, kaput, bye bye. It will still shift from 1-2 but only if I rev it above 3,000rpm and only if I let off the gas after that. It sucks. So the car won't be driven until I get a new tranny to drop in. Up for a trip to denny's in your ranger?

 

check your charcoal canister. it could be bad and need replacing. at work the other day a guywith a caddy came in to get an oil change and other things and said too look for a gas leak becuz he smelt gas on the interior and turns out the charcoal canister went bad and is goin to need to be replaced. id check the charcoal canister first before dropping the tank.

 

Check the tank vent thing that comes off the tank. I had a gas smell from the rear of my car once and thats what it was. Mine was broken and always venting. looks like this if you dont know

 

I had a 92 RS that did this all the time. I could smell gas. But i found the problem, my gas filler tube had a small place in it where someone pryed a locking gas cap off of it. If I took a hard right corner, gas would spill out of the cap and filler tube. I tgot bad enough to leak out on the 1/4 and fade my paint. I would suggest trying a new gas cap?

 

There was(is?) a recal for leaking fillernecks on 1989 and up cars.
My car is a '88 and has the leakink neck as well!(but no sollution from GM,I tried everything,but they refuse,because it's a '88!!!)
Small cracks were the neck is welded to the tank.
Only when I fill the tank completely,the smell(and leaking!!) is there.
I will try to put some epoxy(liquid steel) on the weld to seal it.
Anyway,it is very well possible your filler neck is leaking too!!

 

Happens it both left and right turns. Maybe its just the effect of the gas sloshing around the whole thing but it doesn't seem to be related to right turns only.

I just checked the www.alldata.com site and there isn't a recall related to the filler neck for my year car. I think I'm excluded out of this fix too. There is a TSB listed for 89 and it says, " 9167 SEP 90 Fuel Filler Cap - Interior Fuel Odors" but my cap is solid and checked out the last time I had my emissions test. I failed emissions horribly, but thats a different story.

 

I do not know if this is revelent but I think it was my Dad who told me about a way to stop a gas tank from leaking if it was a little leak. The common household item that will not be dissolved by gasoline is bar soap. I had an old 1960 Austin Healy Bug Eye Sprite, (Mark 1) and I had a small gas leak on the bottom of the tank. Rubbing a bar of soap on this stopped the leak. Water will wash the soap away so what I did was after stopping the leak with soap I coated the area over and a bit around the soaped area with epoxy glue to keep the soap dry. It worked for several years until I sold the car.

No, I do not remember what kind of soap I used but it was probably cheap as I was a college kid at the time. This being over 25 years ago, :^).

I mentioned this as I am pretty sure gasoline will have a bad effect on epoxy glue either in it not setting or in it breaking down quickly.

dzimmerm