Dryslick13

When driving my car hard in corners (especially up hills) I get a faint scent of gas. I pulled over after doing a series of s's and tried to find where it was coming from. I opened the hatch, fuel cap door, looked under the car and there is no sign of leak or smell. Any idea where it might be coming from?

John_AZ

Your overflow or lines to the Charcoal emissions canister are cracked.

Follow the lines as far as you can from under the car and you will see they become hidden between the rear deck and top of tank.

First check the fuel pipe down to the fuel tank. Pull the carpet and remove the metal sheild. Have some Black Rubber Silicone (WalMart) to reseal. Check the clamps and hoses.

Solution??? If not the fuel pipe?

Drop the tank and replace the hoses. OH, the transaxle is lowered first.

GL
John

tomv944

Sorry I am a bit of a novice mechanic but I had the same fuel smell in my S2 Cab. Could not find a leak anywhere and nothing on the ground. ( I drove it hard noticed the smell and the parked over a sheet of brown paper) Nothing. I then took out the carpet from the trunk and removed the meshy sticky pad and then removed the black cap over the fuel sender. The fuel sender sits in the top of the tank in a quite large depression that hold about a cup of gas. Mine was about 1/3 full and the round metal pipe coming out of the top was the culprit. I took some high quality silicone and resealed where the pipe come out and the smell is no gone

mhr

I sometimes have a fuel smell in the trunk of my cab. will be doing as described by tomv944 this weekend.

Keaton944

i have one but only when i fill the tank up to 3/4 or more, any ideas on it?

tomv944

Keaton that is when I had the problem also.

tomv944

MHR let me know what you find

SalzundPfeffer

I am in the same boat as Keaton and tom. This is pathetic, and I probably look really stupid doing it, but I listen to the sound of the fuel going into my tank during filling. When I hear gurgling in the filler pipe, I know the tank is nearing full and I stop fuel. I never actually get the tank 100% full because my car ends up smelling like a bomb.

I know my car now, so I put around 250 miles on it per tank and only put around 10 gallons in it. This technique usually keeps the smell to a minimum.

I pulled the carpets in the back and tried to seal everything up again. I didn't pull the cover on the inside of the trunk that goes to the filler line. I suspect this is cracked and needs to be replaced...

Carrera51

I had the same problem in my old 83. It wasn't around the sender on top. I wouldn't have the issue if I only filled to about 3/4 full at gas stops. The mechanic thought there could have been a hairline crack at the top of the tank. I lived with it since the cost to replace the tank plus the labor was awfully high. This was 11 years ago so I don't remember the exact number.

John_AZ

This is a complete thread on tank cracks.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...eaks-read.html

Richgreenster

I had an old 1983 that was doing the same thing a few years back. I changed all of the fuel hoses to the charcoal canister, then the rear hatch seal. This helped some but never fully fixed the problem. People swore that it was the canister because every time I would fill the tank full the problem got worse. It was not until I replaced the catalytic converter with a new one that made the smell go completely away. It was like having a new car again.

luftpirate

How can the canister in the front cause fumes to appear in the back?

Is maybe what's happening is that the canister gets clogged so then pressure/fumes find there way out somewhere in the back if theres a small leak?

Don 944 LA

cracked tank

tomv944

That is what I thought as well on mine. It only did when the tank was over 3/4 full. One weekend I had some time and filled the tank went driving on some twisties and came home and pull the carpet out of the trunk, pulled the sticky pad and the black cover and the depression in the tank was almost full of gas. I could see the round metal pipe coming out of the fuel gauge sending unit (I think that is what it is ) was loose so took silicon and resealed it and no more smell at all

Richgreenster

Over filling the tank with gas will cause the charcoal canister to become saturated with gas. When the car is running, the cars intake system will pull the fumes/gas from the charcoal canister into the system causing the car to run very rich.. This is how the system is suppose to work with the exception of getting actual gas into the canister due to overfilling it. If a Catalytic converter is old and not working up to par, then you will have unburnt fuel out of the rear of the car.

So two things will help this out.
1. Don't over fill a 944
2. Get a new cat that can handle the extra unburnt fuel.


I am just giving my input on the subject due to the fact that I experienced the EXACT same thing with one of my 944s. This was what fixed the problem for me. I do understand that the tank may be cracked, drilled into (amp), or maybe the vent lines are cracked. Both of these are easy to check for when the car is not running. But I am telling you that when a car is running rich, you will experience a very strong smell inside the rear of the cabin.