I was just at Kirkwood recently and it was cold as hell. I started my car and noticed a really strong fuel smell inside and outside of my car. I popped the hood to take a look and followed my nose. There was a fuel leak and it was puddling on the block under the intake manifold next to the turbo inlet. I freaked out and poured water over it to wash it off. I started the car and drove down the hill and the smell went away in about a half hour. I stopped in Jackson to check it out and the gas had stopped leaking and the puddle had dried. It has not leaked since then and the smell has not returned. My car is an 02 WRX and has 77k on it

So I guess there's a TSB

https://www.i-club.com/forums/showth...light=gas+leak

Has anyone experienced this and had the issue taken care of by a Bay Area dealer?

Which dealer should I go to? Did they charge you? Were they difficult to deal with? Did they need to recreate the problem?

Any help would be great, I need my car to snowboard! Thanks

 

If your vehicle is still under extended warranty, the TSB should be carried out for free as long as the dealer can reproduce the problem. Obviously at 77k, your car is outside the standard warranty.

The tricky bit is reproducing the problem at the bay area dealers because the temperatures are rarely low enough.

SOA have picked up the bill for some people outside of warranty though, so it would be worth pestering the dealer a bit. The worst they can do is say no.

My car has had the problem from new, but Carlsen couldn't reproduce the it and would not fix it under warranty. The annoying thing is that the car now leaks even in 50 degree temperatures, but I have 94000 miles on it so I'm SOL.

 

I had zero luck, even with the TSB in hand, and the smell of gas seeming like a fire was imminent, all I got told was that it would cost me over 500 in labor and I'd be without my car for a couple of days.

Now it doesn't even need to be cold, everytime you get in and start the car, you get a powerful buzz going from sniffing gas for the first 10-15 minutes.

 

I had a similar experience. I took my car into the dealer, they could smell the fuel leak but said they checked everything and couldn't find the problem.

 

my car started this winter. I have an 02 w/ 99k.

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...&postcount=167

 

I took my '02 WRX with 55000 miles to Santa Cruz Subaru last October. They did the Fuel Smell TSB repair under warranty. Took my word for the smell, talked to the SOA rep and got the OK to do the repair. Took them about 6.5 hours. Very nice people to deal with.

 

I'll look into SC but they are a little far for me. Maybe if my engine catches on fire they will pay attention. This seems like a serious hazard and a liability for SOA

 

this was a common problem with the 300ZXs, both of mine had it in the winter time, all it needed was all the hose clamps to be retightened a bit, the get a little loose/shrink after a couple years, cant imagine why that would be $500

 

Because in the subaru tightening the clamps does not do it, you need to remove the manifold, along with all the crap attached to it to go in and change the fuel lines, then rebuild it all- it's like a 6 hour job, and a lot of dealerships just don't feel like taking it on.

Although come to think of it, it was supposed to get done on mine when my engine got changed....

 

I have the new fuell line and hose for the recall for sale if anyone wants to buy it from me. I bought it from the dealer but never used it.

 

interesting, I noticed this starting this winter but figured it was because my car was outside in the freezing cold rather than in the garage like last year. I havent checked for a fuel leak

can anyone supply pictures of where exactly to look?

 

It is not so much something you'd see, it it most profoundly manifest as a smell like someone shot an ounce or two from the gas pump into the cabin, unless your nose is comletely plugged up you'll smell it way before there's anything to see.

 

 

its about 52* here, 15* warmer than when I usually leave in the morning and I could smell the smell but not as strong as before. I also saw no pooling in the engine bay. Perhaps mine is from being untuned (when I first smelt the smell) and now running a Cobb OTS map in addition to having a slight exhaust leak at the DP/CBE connection.

I plan to investigate more and bring my car in since its under the extended warranty. I do not foresee this being easy though

 

wrx360 might have a different condition than what I've seen