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Danny B

Strange fuel leak

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Hi everyone strange thing happened to me the other day............driving quite quickly on A3 when started to smell petrol - tank was well low already almost in red - stoppped took a look and petrol was pissing out of right hand side of fuel tank (filler cap side). Drove to nearest Station and filled up. Carried on going with strong smell of petrol still, and by the time I got home and took another look the leak is no longer, but smell is still very strong.

 

Anyone experienced this sort of thing before, strange that the leaking went away after filling up ?

 

danny b

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yes, I had a very similar problem with my Scirocco!

 

Took the car to the garage to fix the leak and the mechanic removed/checked the fuel tank and found no problems, turned out eventually that it was air pressure inside the tank, forcing petrol through the edges of seals!

Having a 1mm hole drilled through the centre of the filler cap solved this....but after the investigation cost me £100.

 

So, ..get one of those temporary filler caps from the petrol station and see if that helps, if so that's your problem. Also, the tank may gasp when you take the cap off, hinting that the pressure in the tank is too high.

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thanks for the reply thom,

 

I had it checked out last week and turned out that the fuel pipe connected to the fuel tank had come loose due to a perished old original connector. changed the connector for a jubilee clip and job done, didnt have to remove tank or anything as just had to remove round plate in the boot that allows access to tank. fingers crossed job done......£1.50 for new clip :clap: .

 

Danny b

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Dude :shock: you drove your car when it was leaing petrol?

 

You know the tank is next to the exhaust right...and the exhaust can get quite hot.... both of them together can make you quite dead.

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live on the wild side......dont be so :camp:

 

Yeah.... sorry about that :cuckoo: I guess I don't hate life enough to want to kill myself :lol:

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on the subject of leaking fuel, when my C was hoiked up on a 4 post lift last week i saw that fuel was leaking from the top of my tank as it had a damp patch from the top downwards and around in the middle (as if it were a present and you put ribbon round it! :camp: lol) is this a normal leak, as i'm a bit concerned and as the C is off the road atm it might be a good time to try and fix it!!

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No leak is normal dude, and worth getting sorted asap. Any pictures?

 

What you don't want to do is leave it until it's pissing out of the tank, then go to a public place like a service station with it still pissing out of the tank and fill it up some more :lol: :roll:

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Dude :shock: you drove your car when it was leaing petrol?

 

You know the tank is next to the exhaust right...and the exhaust can get quite hot.... both of them together can make you quite dead.

not really an issue ....to a point

you can pour neat fuel on an exhaust manifold and it just evaporates as there is no spark to ignite the fuel ,

brake fluid on the other hand will go up this is why newer cars tend to have there brake fluid reservoirs behind the bulkhead or away from the engine

so in the event of an accident the brake fluid wont hit the manifold ,

the back end of the exhaust is relatively cold compared to the front so it was not an issue really .

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obviously not :wave: .

live on the wild side......dont be so :camp:

 

Yeah.... sorry about that :cuckoo: I guess I don't hate life enough to want to kill myself :lol:[/quote:28srcjxd]

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I think that is a bit of a harsh comment, neither the less I wont go into details as to why I did it, just surfice to say it was neccessary.

Hmmm - no I'd say thats fairly dangerous mate, if not a bit stupid!

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this was kinda my understanding on it, but not being an expert I didnt want to say.

Dude :shock: you drove your car when it was leaing petrol?

 

You know the tank is next to the exhaust right...and the exhaust can get quite hot.... both of them together can make you quite dead.

not really an issue ....to a point

you can pour neat fuel on an exhaust manifold and it just evaporates as there is no spark to ignite the fuel ,

brake fluid on the other hand will go up this is why newer cars tend to have there brake fluid reservoirs behind the bulkhead or away from the engine

so in the event of an accident the brake fluid wont hit the manifold ,

the back end of the exhaust is relatively cold compared to the front so it was not an issue really .

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