92 Ls 400 Gas Smell - How To Troubleshoot ?

[Drdb]

Interior gas smell, progressively getting worse over last several months, worse in AM, and sometimes won't disappear even with windows down. Much worse after filling gas tank. Car has 160,000 miles, no other problems. Help ! Thank you.

[90LS400Lexus]

May be your gas tank cap leaking fumes. Can you not pinpoint where its coming from?

Smell under the hood, or gas cover area to see where its the strongest.

BTW - welcome to LOC! :)

[curiousB]

maybe put some craft paper on floor of garage and then park on top of it. Run engine a bit to see if a fuel leak is dripping down onto paper.

Did you transport a gas can in the trunk recently? Could some fuel have spilled or leaked out of can and soaked into carpet? That could linger for a long time.

[borzech]

Interior gas smell, progressively getting worse over last several months, worse in AM, and sometimes won't disappear even with windows down. Much worse after filling gas tank. Car has 160,000 miles, no other problems. Help ! Thank you.

Behing rear backrest you have fuel pump in your tank.

Pull two snaps in the rear seat to pull out rear seat

you will have 4 bolts under backrest to unscrew, 2 are under seatbelts

lift the backrest to remove

in the center of the rear wall you will see silver circle, glued, just unglue it by prying

you will see cover secured with 8 bolts and in the middle 2 wires are going out. It's your cover to fuel pump. Check there for leaks.

Just do everything with careful!

Good luck!

ps: sorry for my English.

[90LS400Lexus]

Yeah... also, with a hot engine and car off, you can smell between the cracks of the hood/fender to see if the fumes are omitting from that area... that will narrow it down some. I have never heard tell of a LS with an underhood fuel leak, but I guess its possible.

[curiousB]

I had a Honda many years ago where the fuel tank seams rusted and started to leak. Very slow leak at first but eventually accumulated on the garage floor. The paper on the floor suggestion would catch this one.

I’d be careful about starting the car in a closed area if this is very strong odor. Vapors in the air if in high enough concentration could be flashover hazard.. not pretty.

[jcrome04]

The LS cold starts very rich to begin with.

Do you have an EGR leak?? Mine smelled horrible on startup because of an EGR leak.

EGR fixed... Smell gone.

[Monsieur Dupont]

The petrol smell is from your fuel regulator. It will look like this (probably in gold colour rather than silver)

Depending on the temperature, the actuator inside the regulator will fluctuate. The smell is from fuel leaking from the fuel regulator--most probably the left fuel regulator. Look for wet spots on hoses surrounding them. Using a screwdriver, you should be able to twist the screw at the top of the regulator's cap to adjust the spring tension and stop the leak. I can't remember the direction, sorry... you will have to find out by trial-and-error.

When driving, if you close your windows and close your cabin fan system to recirculate, you will not smell it. If you open the cabin air fan, you will smell it because the cabin intake is below the windscreen wipers--directly behind your engine bay.