Anyone fix this between January and now? How is LIC's fix, or is everyone just tightening the clamps themselves? I'm getting nauseous just thinking about this.

 

i have never had a customer call me back once we've fixed it. I even have other local and not so local subie shops bring me there cars for this fix.

not sure if that says anything or not.

-Noah

 

You guys should file with the ntsb. They will make subaru turn it into a full recall.


B.T.W.. I towed my car up to lic yesterday for them to fix my leaks... (mess) They have been very up front with me. They also have a world class shop. Very clean and a clean shop tells you allot about their work.

 

I was up in Tahoe a few times with my 02 WRX with 170K miles. After a day on the slopes I could totally smell the gas when I started the car. I figured, oh well. Screw it. It goes away in a few minutes and the car still runs fine.

 

Incidentally, some dude on NABISCO recently bought the bits, did a home DIY job and posted the pics - maybe worth checking out for anyone who enjoys (a lot of) wrenching.

 

LIC told me something like $100 of labor and its fixed.

 

Sorry to bump such an old thread but just took my 02 bugeye into stevens creek and they fixed this. The key is to be the original owner. They have to fix it. It did take three days though and I had to take a shower after going there...

 

I've been noticing that fuel smell lately on very cold mornings.

Does it affect gas mileage? I've noticed a decrease in gas mileage recently (granted that could be from crappy winter blend gas). Overall it's gone down from normally around 24-26 mpg on average to about 22 mpg on average. The driving style hasn't changed nor has my driving patterns so trying to figure out what caused the drop in gas mileage.

I've already changed the fuel filter & cleaned the MAF. Going to get a new Air Filter soon. I also switched up to a different gas on this past tank to see if the Chevron 91 is what's causing the drop off in MPG's. I may end up calling up LIC to take my car over to them to have them do the fix for that's talked about earlier in this thread.

 

I didn't notice an MPG change between unfixed and fixed. However, on really cold mornings (below freezing where I used to live) the smell was nauseating. The only way to avoid smelling it was to turn the HVAC to recirculation before turning the car on. However, this fogs up the windows on cold days so I had to turn the defroster on full blast until the engine was warm enough to not smell anymore.

The $100 or whatever the cost was at LIC was WELL worth it.

 

I get a fuel smell in my 05 but it goes away after warm up...

 

I just got mine fixed at Putnam subaru in Burlingame. I have an 03 with 97k miles, 2nd owner. Talk to dawyne if you have this problem, I had no hassles with getting it done. they even vacuum the car for you! Total cost was $0 for the tsp at Putnam. I called Carlsen and they wanted to charge a $100 inspection fee before fixing it...BS!

 

The amount that mine used to leak would not have made an impact on mpg. It only takes a few ccs of gasoline to make a huge smell as the engine warms.

Since my last visit to this thread, Subaru did the right thing and issued recalls or warranty repairs on all '02 models. Recalls were issued in the coldest states. In warmer states such as CA, they made the repair a 12-year/any mileage fix. Regardless of whether you are the original owner or not, you should be able to get the repair as long as your car meets the recall/warranty requirements. 2003 - 2005 models were not supposed to be a problem so they didn't get a notice.

So, I took mine into Carlsen about a month after the notice and they did the repair without question. However, even if they had wanted proof, that would have been easy given it was leaking every time I started the car by that point - even on warm days.

 

total cost to get mine fixed was $0 but a long list of occurring problems afterwards...

 

same here...

i had my turbo inlet replaced by them since the labor was free and my old turbo inlet was dry cracked and brittle..that was $180...now i have to change some leaky valve cover gaskets..there goes another $100 or so for parts..

 

Yeah, the problem is that most of the rubber pipesconnections on the car have hardened with age. Even moving them is enough to break them or make them leak.

When Carlsen took mine in, they said that this might be an issue, so I told them to replace anything that they might move and any tubes that were easy to reach. They changed out maybe 10 or so hoses. They kept them for me to check over, and the hoses were almost brittle. I snapped one just by bending it. Anyway, I think I paid around $100 for hoses, but they didn't bill me for any labour and I got a lot of bad old hoses swapped out. No problems since, so I was pretty happy with that.