Petrol smell when accelerating quite hard?

Raider

Raider

Raider

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,576
Location
Leamington Spa / Oxford
I've had this problem for a while, but i've never bothered to get it checked (I probably should!). Basically if I accelerate quite hard with the windows down I get a bit of a whiff of petrol coming in.

I'm going to ring the garage soon, but i'd like a rough idea of what it could be so that I don't get the **** taken out of me completely :p

So any ideas? It's a 1994 Golf Mk3 1.8 GL for reference! TIA! :)
 
Is it something that should have been picked up in the MOT? I had the MOT with the local garage at Christmas.
 
Raider said:
Basically if I accelerate quite hard with the windows down I get a bit of a whiff of petrol coming in.

So any ideas?
Click to expand...

Keep the windows up.

Or don't accelerate as hard.
 
I had the same fault, but on my ST mondeo, nothing was found on MOT or by a mech. mate of mine looking all over the place (i.e. no leaks).

It turned out to be a leaking seal on the top of the tank, where the filler pipe joins, guess it sloshes out under acceleration?

Scort.
 
A lot of petrol pipes will also go brittle/porous - so you might not necessarily see a leak but vapour can escape. If it looks suspect and old, change it :)
 
Raider said:
Is it something that should have been picked up in the MOT? I had the MOT with the local garage at Christmas.
Click to expand...
It's nearly July - a lot can happen in 6 months!
 
Well just to update, had it in at the VW garage, and after a while of searching they said the problem was the base gasket not sitting flush. I think the guy said that in effect too much fuel was being injected when you accelerate hard, which seems to make sense. (Sorry if it doesn't, I have very little knowledge of engines).

They fitted a new one after quite a bit of effort. Around £150 for parts and labour to fix. Not too bad (especially as I had them fix a couple of other niggles), and the problem does seem to have been fixed. :)
 
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