Club 80-90 Forums

Hi Guys,

I replaced my coolant pipes on my 1982 1.9dg the other day, it smelt of fuel when driving before but now it's much worse. At the same time I replaced the rubber breather pipes, reused the polyamide plastic hose as that looked ok, but forgot to order a filler neck seal on the tank so reused the old one which looked ok. However now the fuel smell is even worse, there's no obvious leaks and it doesn't seem to smell outside at a standstill although you can smell fuel when laying underneath. I also recently replaced the feed and return lines with new kits from Brickwerks.

I've ordered a new filler neck seal anyway, wondering if I can change that without dropping the tank as it's got about 25-30 litres of fuel in it again now.

So I'm a bit confused why the smell is back and even worse, I guess the filler neck seal has just gone hard and is letting vapour but not fuel past?

Any ideas would be great as it's not really driveable at the moment, it's just as bad if not worse if you open the windows for "fresh air"

If its a plastic filler tube, you can change filler collar without dropping tank.

it's a metal one unfortunately, these have the bigger seal don't they woohooo down with the tank again lol.

The fuel filler cap has definitely improved it, we have noticed if we drop the windows, the smell seems to start from the passenger side, so I better check the expansion tank as I only replaced the pipes and didn't check it for any cracks etc.

Sounds like something has gone wrong with your breathers, you might want to drop the tank and check all the connections are intact. 

Had a very similar problem myself a while back and turned out to be the breather pipes. I know you’ve replaced these but might be worth a double check all is right there.

Thanks guys, the smell was there before I lowered the tank and replaced the breathers so I'd have thought it's something else but I'll recheck them anyway.

it's not too bad most of the time but you notice it if you've gone on a country lane and gone round a few corners or go up a steep hill

I had a similar issue, thought it was the cross over pipe coming out on the top of the tank. Turns out it was the filler neck seal that had split. Fitted a new one all is well no more smell.
Also make sure the breather tanks in the wheel wells aren't cracked. 
Probably best to give it a once over, Drop the tank it's a pain in the a***, esp if you have no lift... make sure your grommets on the top of the tank are all OK as well as the tank itself.

 

So it turns out someone has previously screwed through the floor and into the passenger side expansion tank which left a small hole for the vapour to escape out of. Covered it with tape and the smell has now gone, will remove and give it a better fix but that's problem solved.

Thanks for your help guys