Petrol smell - I'm extremely depressed

[chasod69]

Hi,
There is a very strong smell of petrol in my chimp boot which is getting very bad in the cabin. There is also a pool of petrol behind the drivers side rear arch in the boot that has soaked the carpets there. The rest of the boot is dry. It only seems to get bad when the tank is more than half full. Its odd because there is only one pipe out of the petrol tank on that side and it seems okay.

I've had the tank out, tightened all the jubilee clips, inspected the tank but there really wasn't anything obvious - everything was in order.

Does anyone have any ideas where the petrol could be leaking from, its been like this for some time and I'm at my wits end.

Thankyou as usual for any advice in advance

[shadowninja]

it might be because the seal doesnt work properly when it spills over eg when you corner, so when the tank is less full, the petrol doesn't pour out. can you check the cap and associated draining system? one of my cars did exactly this.

[chasod69]

Good point, but the filler cap is on the other side of the car. There is only the one pipe on the drivers side and the thingy for monitering the amount of petrol in the tank - both seem to be fine.

Its probably also worth saying that the car is always left parked on the level

Again thanks for the idea

[that daddy]

you can get some white spray(dusty)aerosol that you spray around fuel unions and the like its used on new cars on assembly for checking fuel weepage,if you strip the carpet from around the fuel tank and spray around the seams and any inlets & outlets with a full tank,it should show quite easily where the leak is,i think WURTH uk keep it,that may need some reasearch though,its not something you want to live with for obvious reasons,good luck.

[spend]

Is it possible to put kitchen roll (one of my fav diagnostic tools :-) in strategic places to trace the source?

I've only seen 1 sender flange arrangement ~ which looked extremely tricky to seal (not sure that was an original tho)..

Dave

[hut49]

Rather than leaking when the car is being driven is there any way it could be caused during the process of filling the tank? I recall there's an electric cable that runs diagonally down from the area of the filler neck (by the jubilee clip securing the filler pipe to the tank) towards the driver's side of the boot - could overflowing / leaking petrol be tracking down this cable and dripping into the well? Just a thought since it doesn't sound as though the tank itself is leaking. Have you stripped out the carpets and looked for leakage during the filling process?

[chasod69]

Great,

I'll try these ideas and if I still can't source the leak I might use a zippo lighter to locate it!

Cheers guys

[herbie hammer]

Exactly what I had happen to me!!

Its most likely to be the fact that the big clip that holds the pipe under the filler cap has slipped and as such, the seal is broken and petrol will some in when you fill up.

Get your head into the boot and have a look and pull the clip as far up as you can and then tighten it

Hope this helps

HH.

[chasod69]

Thanks for the advice,

I've just had a good look and feel around the pipes coming from the tank and think it must be a problem with the pipe on the drivers side at the top because its that side of the boot that soaking petrol. DOes anyone know what that pipe is for?

[spend]

I believe thats the return for the excess fuel from the requlator. Pipe comes from regulator on fuel rail at back of the engine & runs all the way down the inside of the main chassis rails (driver side) then up to tank IIRC.

Its worth checking the Fuel Reg, fuel pipe in , fuel pipe out & vac from plenum. bit tricky to get at tho...

Dave

[chasod69]

Cool, I'll look at this at the weekend.

I've got a copy of the bible but I've recently relocated and its currently 200 miles away. If you have time could you expand abit on where the plenem etc is.

Don't worry if its too much hassle

Cheers

[Big Ashy]

My brothers got a Chim, exactly the same problem, took it to the factory last year, new filler cap, job done

[dlkbs1]

For info I have just had a petrol leak fixed in the return pipe behind the driver, the pipe had cracked where it bends at the connection to the tank. The petrol did not get into the boot, just dripped down between tank and bulkhead and escaped through a hole in the floor behind the rear wheel.

[chasod69]

hi,
Quick update on the petrol smell.

I took the tank out yesterday as one last attempt to sort this. Upon close inspection I idientified a pin prick hole by one of the weld that holds the tank baffles in place. From this hole the petrol was very slowly seeping out.

So I emptied the tank, blew air through it for a couple of hours (using a small compressor) and then put a blob of solder (a big blob) over the offending hole - this will be a stop gap until I source a new tank.

Happy days, and heres to smelly free motoring!!

Cheers for your help guys