What are the symtoms of a faulty pulsation dampener?

Im getting some fuel smell inside the car when I drive. I pop the hood when i stop and everything on the motor is bone dry and dont smell any fuel.

I did tighen up the gas cap. How much pressure is supposed to build up in there? When I open it I hear a long release of pressure.

I gotta fix this...Any ideas?

 

Big pressure release when opening gas cap is normal. Or at least my car does it.

 

Yep, same here on the pressure release when opening the gas cap.

Do you smell the fuel during certain parts of driving? Under acceleration only? Under boost only? All the time?

 

might be injector o-rings...that's what happened to me

 

I smell gas inside but not around the motor.....

 

Make sure the hoses that are under the hood that go to the carbon canister are connected, the o-rings of the injectors aren't leaking, and the fuel pulsation dampner, as well as the fuel lines.

 

take UIM off and jumper the TEN and F/P terminals on the diagnostic box in the engine bay. it will pressurize the fuel system to base pressure (38-40 psi) and you should be able to see any leaks if you just look around.

FPD is on the primary rail if you are suspecting it as the source of your leak.....

 

ah, i just read this....
i would still do the check as i wrote above, but also check the things RX794 mentioned.

are you running a midpipe and/or running very rich?
anything recently installed or changed??

 

This happened to me, and it WAS the gas gap. Tightening it won't help....in fact, what happened was, I had overtightened it at one point, and after that it wouldn't seal properly, which allowed fuel vapors to escape. I bought a new cap from the dealer (it wasn't expensive) and that solved the problem.

 

I had my Fuel Pulsation Damper replaced 2 days ago. I had the fuel smell at startup and in the cockpit. Everything looked/smelled normal under the hood. Im pretty sure its the damper. The part costs around $120 but labor for it is a little more expensive. Not too bad though.

 

Do a search under this in my name. I had the same symptoms. Turned out to be the fuel dampner. Once i had everything removed a replaced the dampner and the forward fuel line just in case. It is not hard to do. Good luck.

 

It could be a number of things:

* charcol cannister
* purge control system
* injectors
* pulsation damper
* gas cap

and the list goes on...

First thing is to check the obvious places for fuel leaks. If you don't find any leaks, the next thing is to check the evporative system. Start with the charcol cannister, then move onto the purge control system.

 

Ill check it out.

Thanks Guys!!!

 

The smell should come from around the alternator/throttle body if it is the FPD (fuel pulsation dampener). I had the same problem as you. Also, the FPD is notorious for causing engine fires. I was so paranoid, I had my car towed to a mechanic. Of course, it cost an arm and a leg to get replaced.