Hello,

Recently ive been smelling fuel odor inside the car. To minimize the smell i always enable the air recirculation. However if the car has ran for some time like 30 minutes and I stop i could still smell strong fuel odor inside. Odor is minimal if I ran the car for only a few minutes (like going to work and ran car for about 10 minutes). Odor is also negligible while running at highway speeds. I also made an observation lately. When I traveled recently for like 180 miles on highway and when stopped on a gas station, after turning off the engine I immediately opened the gas cap. Lots of air came out (with fuel smell of course). Amazingly negligible fuel smell inside the car! Then on the return trip after shutting off the engine I did not open the gas cap. There is strong fuel smell inside the car. This observation is repeatable.

So Im wondering if you guys have an idea what could cause the fuel smell after the engine has warmed up and why would opening the gas cap resolve it? Is the pressure buildup inside the tank a contributing factor? Ive looked on the engine compartment after the engine's hot but couldnt see any leak at all. Is my evap possibly not working?

Thanks!

 

The EVAP system makes sense for being influenced by the tank pressure. I'd follow the fuel vent line from the EVAP can back towards the tank. Look for anything like corrosion allowing it to leak.

 

some yrs ago I had similar fuel smell after shutting off Nissan sedan.
Dealer diagnosed, replaced fuel injector seals (were they O-rings?) and it went away.

luck

 

I would also suggest checking fuel injector/rail orings. I've seen them fail due to age/handling. It can be tricky to see/spot the leak but nose and hand feeling will work. New orings will fix.

good luck

 

If it was a leaky injector o-ring you would want to replace all four so you'd have to remove the rail and I'd say for all that work you'd be looking at about 1-1.5 hours. The parts cost would be under $40 I'd say so depending on what the shop charges for it's hourly rate you can figure out a rough estimate.

 

Car has 166K miles on it. Is it time to replace all injectors or just the o-rings? How risky will it be to change it at home since it involves fuel? I've never been to a shop before (at least since ive owned the car) because of the cost of labor. I also like DIY since it makes me learn things about car internals.

Another thing ive observed is that after running the car for long periods (maybe about 30 mins at least) and I don't depressurize the tank, it seems that Im loosing fuel after checking the fuel guage in the morning. I dont see any leaks under the car at all. Are my injectors leaking then? Finally how do you check the EVAP system on a honda accord the age of my car?

 

Ok took a closer look at my injectors and this is what I got



Looking at the rightmost injector (yellow arrow), the surrounding area where its mounted seems to have blackened (or its like wet). Is this the culprit??? Do i replace the whole injector or just the O-ring? Is this a difficult or hazardous job to do at home?

 

It's unusual to need the whole injector.

Removing the fuel rail, you're gonna disturb all the injectors, and the O-rings will be hardened with age & heat. Get a whole set of new O-rings - there's 2 on each injector.

 

The oring you've imaged is the fuel injector-intake manifold. This can leak air, but not fuel (subambient). The other end of injector that connects to the fuel rail is where fuel pressure (~40 psi) will cause significant leaks.

The large orings imaged may leak air and cause other problems. I agree they should be replaced. Felpro or OEM are good kits.

good luck

 

Just a follow up, should the fuel tank have positive or negative pressure? I noticed that after a few runs theres so much pressure coming out of the tank whenever I vent it (open gas cap). Im getting this feeling that something is wrong with my EVAP system

Thanks!