Mk IV Golf - Petrol Smell

[groomi]

My Wife's Golf has started to smell of petrol while parked up. It stinks before driving off, but doesn't seem to smell while driving. Fuel consumption doesn't seem to be any different, so it certainly isn't leaking anything significant.

It ran out of fuel a few days ago and the smell has started since then - could it be connected in any way?

Does anyone know if it's a common Golf fault? If so, I'd rather fix it myself than take it to a garage.

[16v Matt]

Had the same thing on mine. It was a leaking fuel filter. May be worth checking.

[LaSarthe+Back]

Had this just recently, started as a whiff when parking up, I thought I'll have to have a look at that this weekend, and it was dropping fuel like a dripping tap.

£8 for a fuel filter and an hour under the car fiddling later, and it's all good. Just got 417 miles out of the tank (1st full one since change), which included a spirited drive up the Cat and Fiddle and Snake Pass in the same journey which has NEVER happened before!!

[groomi]

Cheers Guys,
I haven't had chance to look at it yet, but interestingly it smelt much less today.

[16v Matt]

417 miles from a tank?! Thats pretty good mate!

[3sixty]

I changed my fuel filter, its an easy-ish job (not an hours worth???), took me 20-30mins max.

It did help my starting, usually took a few turnovers, now only takes 1. However, it hasnt helped my shocking fuel economy, still at 18mpg from a 1.6, and thats after replacing fuel, air & pollen filters, MAF and cleaning throttle body.

Edited by 3sixty on Friday 20th June 11:22

[LaSarthe+Back]

Admittedly, I did have to keep refering to the bloody crap Haynes manual to confirm the lack of instruction on how to pop the hose off. I got them done, but chipped a bit of the hose off. Once I knew how, it was no problem! Only another 120k til I have to do it again!

Yeah 417, I was pretty impressed. Especially with a good hoon included!