Petrol smell

[AdyP]

Hi guys

I was driving back from the airport last night and got a distinct whiff of petrol from my Cooper's air vents when turned to warm, less so when cold air was coming in. It took me right back to owning the classic which ran on petrol vapours anyway!
I popped the bonnet but could not see anything obvious by torchlight, gonna have another look now it is light.
I have read of issues with R56 Cooper S fuel pump leaking, but not on the R50 so will have to take a wee look around for that, and try to trace the fuel lines.

Any suggestions...apart from no lit matches

[Bawnee]

Hope you've solved the problem Adrian....

[AdyP]

Hi Bawnee, well I didn't do anything in the end as there was nothing obvious. Since then the smell hasn't recurred so I don't know if there were fumes from the car sitting in the airport carpark and someone else was leaking or what. Have to keep an eye on it anyway.

Looking in the Haynes bible the fuel pump is installed in the petrol tank itself so that would have not been to blame for the smell anyway.

[Bawnee]

Well I'm glad you've not been fumagated by your own hand!

[irlmin]

I think that if the car was standing in the heat of an open car park for some time the vapour smell would be from the vent pipe and would possibly have found its way into the cabin , its the only explanation if you have no leak .
G

[AdyP]

Hi Ger
Well the smell has not recurred since then, so perhaps you are right. Strange though as it was not parked up for that long.

[AdyP]

Well the smell was back with a vengeance at the weekend and this morning on the way to work, so I bit the bullet and dropped the car into my local dealer to check out. Expected split hoses and all sorts...

Turns out they said it was a simple enough thing. My spark plugs had all worked loose and so I guess fuel was seeping past them under load and hence the smell. Didn't notice any loss of power but will see how much better the car is tomorrow. Has to be better as I must have been losing a little compression as well.

Expensive lesson to check these in future, but at least they washed the car after its dirty weekend in Wicklow

[MiniMpi]

Well the smell was back with a vengeance at the weekend and this morning on the way to work, so I bit the bullet and dropped the car into my local dealer to check out. Expected split hoses and all sorts...

Turns out they said it was a simple enough thing. My spark plugs had all worked loose and so I guess fuel was seeping past them under load and hence the smell. Didn't notice any loss of power but will see how much better the car is tomorrow. Has to be better as I must have been losing a little compression as well.

Expensive lesson to check these in future, but at least they washed the car after its dirty weekend in Wicklow

Lucky you found out Adrian as there are horror stories of stripped threads etc around!