Hi guys,
I've found that when I have around three quarters of a tank of fuel in my car, there is petrol leaking out of the filler cap and spraying over the rear panel and bumper. As the fuel level goes down, the leakage stops.
A Suzuki garage have looked at it briefly and noted that there seems to be too much pressure when taking the cap off, but the cap itself isn't damaged. They say they have never seen anything like this before and are saying that it could take a few days to diagnose what is causing the problem. I have to drop it off with a full tank and that they would probably use a great deal of it in determining what is wrong.
I still have ten days left of the Suzuki warranty but I am posting on here for advice as I have phoned around a number of garages and none seem to have a clue what it could be, and I am worried that I may have to pay labour charges if they can't find what is causing the problem.
Has anyone come across this before?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
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its obviously a fuel pressure problem from the return pipe or the venting system is blocked
i suggest you dont fill it with petrol and drive it to them because if you do and it blows the cap or a pipe off you could die in a ball of flames
get it returned on a trailer and tell them to fix it
no more no less
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I used to have a similar problem when I went round roundabouts in my 1952 Standard Vanguard Phase 1 if the tank was too full. The filler neck was on the left hand side and petrol came out because of centrifugal force and no baffle in the filler neck or tank, plus the car leaning outwards when cornering. It was as simple as that.
Edited by L'escargot on 09/07/2009 at 10:03
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Thanks for the replies.
I hate having to take the car to a dealer so I would be only too pleased to accept it as a design fault but having taken the filler cap off a few times its clear there is a major problem with pressure in the tank.
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I used to have an MG Maestro whcih pressurised the fuel tank. It didn't cause any problems but when removing the filler cap to refuel I could feel a rush of air/vapour over my hand as I released the cap. I couild also hear the hiss. If I removed the cap when the car had been standing overnight there was no pressure.
In modern cars fuel tanks have a flow and return on them. Returned fuel will have been through pipes located close to hot parts on the engine this fuel will expand and also produce more vapour. When returned to the tank the temperature of the fuel in the tank will increase thus causing it to expand hence increasing the pressure in the tank.
Also injection fuel systems operate under pressure so another possibility is that the fuel returned is under pressure, due to a pressure regulator fault, and thus the tank becomes pressurised.
Does the problem occurr if you leave the car ticking over but don't drive it?
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Bluesky, thanks for the info.
The car went into the dealer today who had it for most of the day and couldn't find anything wrong. They used up a fair amount of petrol so I am satisfied that they inspected it thoroughly. I'm not sure if it does it when the engine is left ticking over, but it certainly does if the engine is off and the car is not moved.
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