Ford Focus 1.6 2007. - Occasional whiff of petrol outside car

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Tue 25 Oct 2016 18:57
Ford Focus 1.6 2007. - Occasional whiff of petrol outside car - argybargy

Hi All

Further to my post a few weeks ago about what I believed was a noisy fuel pump, I started noticing a smell of petrol in the car when I got in after leaving it overnight. I keep an empty petrol can in the boot for emergency topups, and thinking that maybe this was the source of the niff I removed it and put it in the shed. Sure enough, the smell went away.

However...today I had the car running on idle whilst I plugged in and used my 12v car vac, and a couple of times in the space of about 20 minutes I caught a whiff of unburnt fuel, generally in the boot area. This has never happened before whilst I've been checking lights, hoovering or whatever with the car stationary and engine running.

The car runs fine, idles evenly, I haven't noticed any change in the fuel consumption and I couldn't find any obvious sign of petrol on the road under the car. However, I'm sufficiently concerned to be thinking about taking the car to a garage to have the fuel pipework checked.

Am I worrying unnecessarily? I often do that, but with this being petrol....

Edited by argybargy on 25/10/2016 at 18:58

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Wed 26 Oct 2016 14:45
Ford Focus 1.6 2007. - Occasional whiff of petrol outside car - Railroad.

Typical fuel pressure for a petrol is about 40psi. If you had a leak in a pipe it would show up very quickly with the engine running. It's not unusual to be able to smell petrol from the tank breather, especially on a hot day. Have a good look around for leaks, but if you can't see any then I wouldn't worry too much.

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Wed 26 Oct 2016 16:46
Ford Focus 1.6 2007. - Occasional whiff of petrol outside car - argybargy

Thanks for that.

I only posted my query because having removed the petrol can from the car, and thereby seemingly curing the smell inside the vehicle, it felt like more than coincidence that just days later I noticed fuel vapours outside the car instead.

The car is going into a garage for other work shortly, so I'll ask them to have a look at the fuel pipes whilst its up on the ramp. I think you're right and its unlikely that there's any breach of the fuel system, because as I said in my first post, car runs fine and there's nothing on the road.

And I'll try not to worry about it. ;0)

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Thu 27 Oct 2016 01:01
Ford Focus 1.6 2007. - Occasional whiff of petrol outside car - liammcl

Could it be the EVAP , charcoal canister?
I dunno :)

youtu.be/JWHJahowBXk?t=59

or


(turn the sound down for the beginning)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvH1fhihOlk

Cheers
Liam

Edited by liammcl on 27/10/2016 at 01:07

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