petrol fumes in boot

[bandjie]

I have a very strong smell of petrol coming out of the boot, Paul Matty sports cars where the car came from says it is normal, I'm not so sure. Has anyone else come across this problem

[elanman999]

Bandjie,
Yes, from my experience some petrol smell is normal. But it can also be caused by leaks, in the tank, in the filler pipe and in the vent tubes. So if bad it does need investigating. Now you'll say whats bad, you need to compare against another +2.
Take the trim panel covering the tank off and check that the vent tubes are connected etc.
Cheers
John

[bandjie]

Thanks for that John, I hope to investigate this weekend. I will let you know what I find.

[ppnelan]

Yes, petrol fumes come as standard...
Mine smells worse when garaged and with a full tank of fuel. Since there are no apparent leaks, I assume it is the (original) breather pipes - they don't look like they are made from fuel-compatible material. More like the plastic tubing you can buy at aquatic shops...
I have bits of air cleaner foam in the ends of the breathers to try to stop evaporation losses, but they often end up soaked in fuel after a fill-up...
Hope to try the Spyder-type breather mods 'one day'. Linking the filler neck to the top of the tank should help 'eliminate' another annoying standard feature: s--l--o--w fill-ups...

Matthew

[bcmc33]

I copied this for a friend some time ago - it may be of some use.

[EMA7K]

I have a spyder +2 Zetec with the mods and I still get a petrol smell in the boot. It is worse when the tank is full. I've done all the checks-no leaks and even Paul Mattys cannot resolve the problem. I guess I'll have to live with it!

Gareth

[gerrym]

Check all the posts on this one. There are very few hoses that are not permeable to unleaded petrol. I made up a test loop a few years ago; the only "hose" which didn't give off a smell was teflon lined. All the other elastomers allow for a certain amount of permeation resulting in a smell. I guess that's why most modern cars have all the plumbing on the underside of the car.

Regards

Gerry

[bcmc33]

Well Gerry, that's a very fine piece of knowledge for us to remember.

From my point of view, I'm prepared to believe it.

When I leave the boot of my Sprint closed for some time there is a very strong petrol smell when I open it. I now have the habit of leaving the boot open when parked in the garage and there is no obvious petrol smell.

Perhaps I shall explore the posibility of using Teflon in the boot as I am running 3 bar pressure.

[rocket]

My car isnt to smelly but i do make a point of filling up at garages with the new type odourless petrol.


Ian.

[ebc699]

I did the Club Lotus mod as mentioned by Brian and this has reduced the fuel smell in and around the car to a point where it is no longer an issue. The downside is that it takes even longer to get the tank topped up to anything like full. Just don't join the filling station queue behind a Plus 2!
Cheers,
Wylie

[bob_rich]

HI

I found a "bit of a smell" in the rear is normal but much worse when one of the vent pipes fell out of its grommet it the bottom of the seat belt space by the side of the rear seat (drivers side). used tie wraps to ensure pipe stayed firmly in its grommet and now as I say just a "bit of a smell"

Hope this helps

Bob

[kstrutt11]

When I converted mine to a cabriolet I obviously had to remove the original vent pipes, I therefore joined the two vents together using 10 an 15mm copper pipe and short lengths of rubber hose from the tank to the pipe, the other end I then fitted in the filler neck just below the cap using a brass water tank fitting, I then soldered a single small bore pipe (brake pipe) in the top of the main pipe and vented this out below the floor.

Since doing this I have never had any fuel smells.

[1964 S1]

Hi Bandjie, what did you find?

[tdafforn]

I get more petrol smell when the tank is full and the windows open..
The discovered petrol was sloshing past the filler cap seal and dribbling down the rear wing. Then the car aerodynamics seemed to be pulling the vapour back into the car..
Cheers
Tim