S reg 2.0l auto saloon petrol
Today I suffered a significant fuel leak from the tank area.
The car was at full operating temperature with approx 2 gall left in the tank. I had just filled up the tank and had then driven to a car park to park for a few hours.
Having parked, I then immediately got a big whiff of petrol.
There was a trail of spots along my track and a puddle underneath. I could see petrol dripping off the back, sort of the middle of the tank. It was certainly originating from off the top of the tank somewhere. I was not inclinded to take too close a look.
I decided to move off immediately from adjacent vehicles to the large empty area of the carpark and drive round while mulling over the situation and to see if it stopped.
My first thought was that it was a hot day and the petrol was cold so it might be expanding.
I realised how cold the petrol was because there was no plastic cover on the pump handle and my hand was quite cold after 10 plus gallons.
I tried stopping briefly several times in the carpark but it was still dripping.
Having lots of time on my hands I decided to go for a spin on decent roads in the countryside to try using up /lowering the fuel. Eventually after several stops and 40 plus miles later it stopped dripping.
I have now travelled 70 miles home and there is no sign of a drip.
This problem may have been around for some time.
I usually fill up before setting off on at least a 50 mile trip.
I have just checked, since arriving home, that after a mile or two from cold there is, as I expected, a significant hiss when undoing the filler cap so something is working correctly.
Any suggestions on how to progress / fix it or do I hand it over to the guys at ihe impending service?
I have looked at the Haynes manual for ideas.
There are two roll-over valves, an anti-trickle fill valve and a small pipe joining them all. All these items are in the right sort of area.
Haynes says remove the tank first before dealing with them.
I am hoping it is just a pipe come off.
When fixed it should improve my fuel consumption a bit.
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My further thoughts.
I may have inadvertantly over filled it but on second thoughts at 30mpg I would have had to have put in over a gallon more than ever before to do 40 miles before the drips stopped.
At the filling station, one of the major chains, I gave up at the first pump due to trigger kicking back at each of about 4 attemps so that was just over 1 gallon.
I then moved to another pump.
I would not be surprised if this pump was faulty too.
I have never seen such grotty pumps in a UK filling station.
I complained to the operator that I could not read the display as the plastic cover over the LCDs was brown, I guess from age/UV.
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