Smelling gas

This smell you are smelling is not Natural gas smell is it? Like from your water heater or possibly dryer line? I can't remember the gas you put into your cars have much of a smell...unless you have a major spill.

 

...assume we are talking Gasoline smell? But anyways keep in mind many areas (not sure about CA) are still using winter blend which has more light hydrocarbons in there...as temps start to warm up there may be vaporization that'll go away when they change over to summer RVP specs.

 

Um. Now, you be careful here.
That's a new car. New cars often have defects. If you're smelling gas, drive that car to the dealer and say, "New Car! I'm Smelling Gas in the Garage!"

This gets them excited. Nothing like an explosion and pieces of car and garage all over to make the lawyers at the dealership wince.

For what it's worth: Once owned a Honda Odyssey. The gas gauge didn't work right, would drop to "empty" shortly after hitting 1/4 down from full. The dealership replaced the dash panel, that being where the fault was. (And replaced the odometer, gauges, etc. at the same time.. More trouble).

But, before they decided the gas gauge itself was broken, they went and replaced the sender in the gas tank. And broke the rubber seal on the gas tank.

My wife and I smelled gas, but we needed to take a trip to Massachusetts. When we got there, there was gas puddling under the car.

Into the local dealership. It took them three days to find new gaskets, and we were stuck.

But we didn't have a fire. Which is what you're risking. Don't mess with this kind of thing.

KBeck.

 

I would take it to the dealer, if they cant smell it then your suck for round two, only fill half full, not over, see if the smell goes away, also make sure to lock your garage and car door, someone could be trying to steal your gas while you sleep

 

Smelling gas fumes in the garage is extremely dangerous. Air out the garage before you start the car.

Your probably topping off the tank and the gas may be overflowing slightly into the gas recovery port that surrounds the gas filler neck. Basicly overfilling the tank. Eventually will ruin the charcoal canister and thats $$$$$$.

Start hanging up the pump on the first click off.

 

All the advice here is good.

I guess my question or statement is, you say you are tightening the gas cap "one click"...I always tighten mine until it clicks 3 times.

Just habit...always have.

Would be surprised if it was as simple as that...but I always turn my gas cap until I hear it click at least 3 times.

 

I don't see why 3 clicks would make a difference over one but it doesn't cost anything to try.

Gasoline evaporating out of the tank is a problem. Identify the source and get it fixed. Making the dealer do all the legwork is most likely going to result in "can not duplicate the problem--no action taken".

 

Take to dealer and let them look at it, just to make sure there is not something obvious, loose clamp or something!
Should be no smell at all, PERIOD!!!

 

And I'm going to reiterate this: Take it to the dealer. There are stupid dealers, sure. But one of the reasons that one takes a car to a dealership is that they are a big, fixed business containing people Who Can Be Found. Some slightly shady auto repair guy in a shop, when faced with a million-dollar lawsuit in case of a brake-job foul-up or something might leave town, but that won't be true of a dealership. They have assets and the Law knows where to find them. And the dealership, assuming it's not owned by idiots, knows that.

As a result dealerships tend to be extra squeaky clean on safety hazard stuff that might kill or injure people. Stuff like improperly fixing the brakes or having a car catch on fire after blowing off a complaint about gas fumes. Yeah, there are stupid dealerships - but most of them aren't that stupid.

One more quick story. My wife (girlfriend at the time) had a college roommate who regaled us with a story on how her car had caught fire on some secondary road in Indiana. I was an ex-Navy guy with a fair amount of car repair experience, so I asked her, "Why did it catch fire? Were there any warning signs?"

She said, "Well, the bunch of us had noticed fuel smells for a week or so but didn't bother to do anything about it."

I gave her the, "You're Really Stupid" look. Which she deserved, but, what the heck, she was 18 and 18 year olds, of whatever sex, aren't known for their extreme common sense.
Don't make give you that look in a week or three. . Take it to the dealer and quit messing about. Tell them your whole story about the odor coming and going and when. For more fun, write it all down in a quiet spot before you go, then take the piece of paper with you. The more straightforward, clean information you can give them, the better.

They may even have a sniffer for precisely these kinds of problems. Or a procedure and checklist to go through, you never know.

KBeck

 

Smelling what? Sorry, got distracted by the avatar.

 

Probably isn't the answer, and probably won't make a difference.

I live in Oregon, which is one of the rare states that actually won't allow you to pump your own gas. Therefore you have to trust the "usually a kid" pumping your gas, to replace your gas cap correctly. I've gotten into the habit of checking by turning and listening for clicks.

I have to admit, this is probably NOT the answer to the OP's problem.

Since it is a safety issue, I have to agree with the advice to take it to the dealership.

I hope the OP keeps us posted. I'm really curious as to what the problem is discovered to be.

 

I know your not topping off the tank yourself but you may be auto pumping at max speed and by the time it autoclicks off its hiccuped some gas out of the tank onto the area I mentioned.
Try smelling the cap area with the cap on. Should not smell real strong with the cap on. I tried smelling my cap area on my 07 and cannot smell anything except the tiniest hint of fuel if I really tried.

Try pumping manually on slow and hang it up first click.

If thats not it your leaking fuel somewhere out of the car which is very rare and have not seen one post about it.

Get a flashlight and lay under the back of the car and look at the bottom of gas tank real closely. Should not be wet anywhere on that tank. Look closely at the bottom of the fill neck area and see if any fuel is leaky out of top of filler neck area. Follow that filler neck all the way into the tank.
Or get a big piece of cardboard and lay it under the tank when you park for the night. Look for spots in the am.

Also open the hood and the engine area. Should not have even a hint of gas smell there. Not even faint.May have a leaky injector but it would throw a check engine light if any fuel pressure issues I bet.

Try a little search yourself so if you find it you can tell the dealer where it is compared to the dealer going on an all day sniffing mission which could be you all day waiting at the dealer which is hell.

I have to tell you its probably something your doing because we have not seen one gas smell issue here ever.

Gas is very smelly. One tablespoon on the floor in the garage and you'll smell it.

 

Gen 3's have the under plating, which make some of those suggestion difficult.

 

Gas cap says click once.

 

Okay...it was a bad idea...what do you people want from me?

Maybe it's a defective gas cap?

At this point, and with further consideration, given the potential danger of any type of leaking gasoline, I think the best idea is to simply take it to a service center ASAP.