JayL

I get a fuel smell only under load when I drive with the windows down on my 89 S2. After some searching I figured it was the charcoal canister or one of the associated lines running to it. The other day I eliminated all those lines (as well as the charcoal canister) and just ran a single line with a filter on it from the expansion tank down to the rear of the car to allow the tank to vent. Went for a drive and the smell is still there. Once again I checked under the hood for any signs of a fuel leak and I'm not seeing anything. Any ideas where this might be coming from? Any thoughts on how to troubleshoot this?

Arominus

Is the rubber around the filler neck blown out? it could be sucking into the body via that.

I just blew $180 in parts to replace every vapor line in the back of the car (10 lines total), i'm really hoping it does the trick and gets rid of the smell.

Dimitri_944

Check for a bad injector o ring or leaky fuel lines.

white924s

I had a problem with a fuel smell outside my car after I drove, and I replaced all the lines at the back of the car to no avail (although replacing 25 year old fuel lines generally isn't a bad idea). For me, the problem ended up being the o-ring on the gas cap - over time, it shrinks and can't form a good seal. It's a cheap part that's easy to replace, you might want to give that a try

86 951 Driver

Do all the cars have charcoal canister? I have a 86 Turbo.

Sentinelist

Hope it's not the fuel lines! Check your engine bay.

JayL

There's no sign of any leaks in the engine bay that I can see. I've looked when it's cold and again after a drive. I've free revved it up to 5-6K and held it while I could see the fuel rail. Once again, no smell and no leaks. The rubber around the fuel filler neck looks good, but if I can't figure this out I'll change that when I do all the lines back there anyways. I wished it would happen at times other than under load.

Could this possibly be caused by a fuel pressure regulator that's going bad and causing the fuel pressure to spike? This would cause the pressure to spike under load and when it spikes it exposes a weak seal or line? I would think that a leak that's small enough might almost immediately evaporate. I'm not sure of the age of the fuel lines, but they look relatively new. As for any other fuel related items, nothing under the hood looks anywhere close to the age of the car or the mileage. I'd like to troubleshoot this rather than just replace items.

fittrjoe

+ 1 on the gas cap... replaced mine and now smell is gone.
1990 944 S2

944S2IFISH2

You should also check at the tank. I had the line that runs from the fuel filter to the hardline on the body crack. No gas ever dripped out onto the ground. But, under pressure the line would get wet. Not sure if you would be able to smell it when driving but it would be worth a check anyway.

szabon

I had this problem. Ended up being the fuel lines in the engine bay and the gas tank had a hole in it. If you have rubber fuel lines, replace them even if you don't see fuel leaking. When I took mine out, even though I never saw it leak through all the tests I did, it had petroleum jelly in the cracks on the bottom...super scary.

mytrplseven

Pull the floor over the fuel tank sender and check for fuel wetness. If there's a bad seal there, it'll migrate into the cab when the windows are down.