please can anyone tell me were or why im getting this gas smell, i only get it when its hot out. just on the drivers side and in the engine bay sometimes but most near the drivers door. mods that i have would be catback,downpipe, turbo timer, what gives

 

What year is your car and how many miles do you have on it? Chances are it's the Fuel Pulsation Dampener. When you engine is hot, but not on, try smelling underneath the Upper Intake Manifold.

[edit]
Buy a decent fire extinguisher, NOW!
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Check the fuel lines, they are on the drivers side, you may be leaking some fuel? There should be 3 lines, 2 fuel, and one that goes to the charcoal canister ( if I remember correctly). Find out ASAP, you dont want to mess with fuel leaks, because it may lead to engine fire.

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/attach...&postid=901881

Thats a pic of the fuel lines you might want to trace back. Since you said its by the door it might be away from the engine bay, but still important to fix.

 

I had a leaky FPD - the smell wasnt localized to the drivers side door area. But that was my only experience with it.

 

how much dealer charge u to replace it?

 

Eewwwww, he used the "D" word!

Frank

 

Labor for the FPD is usally around $600 or so depending on the mechanic/shop. Include the part, and you can expect around $700.

 

I have the same problem, and KD found it to be the charcoal cannister. I guess that it absorbs fumes. When they get old, they can't absorb any more, and you get the smell. So if everything else checks out, check this.
Good luck
Jim

 

thanks guys, just wondering, could i do the can change myself, i like to work on my own car, and really dont trust the dealer, does anyone have a how to on the project

 

Sure you can do the work yourself. If you have the right tools, anything is possible.


Back to your problem, when do you notice the gas odor? Do you smell it at idle or WOT or both?

If you can smell it at idle, can you smell it on the passenger side of the engine bay? If you can't, then it's probably not the injectors or pulsation damper. If you can, definitely don't drive the car any more and check the pulsation damper (most likely the culprit) and then the injectors.

The charcol cannister handles the gas fumes as idle, where as the evaporative system handles them with the engine under load. If you are getting the gas odor at both idle and WOT, then it could be a problem with a fuel line. If you are only getting it at idle, check the charcol cannister. If you are only getting it at WOT, then check the purge control system check valves.

 

changing the fuel pulsation damper is very easy. dont worry about that. there are a lot of things you can do while you are in there. . . but like mahjik said, i too believe that it is not the fpd or the injectors. check everywhere!!!

paul

 

Buy a shop manual. I open mine before working on any part of my car I am not already familiar with.

 

Assuming you have the tools, you will need:
large print shop manual $100
new Fuel Pulsation Dampener $97
and some 2mm tubing

If it's your FPD, then it's likely that the vacuum hoses have hardened. Replace any hardened hoses.

 

the shop manual is also available online in Adobe format.

 

ill sell a copy of it on cd-rom for 10.00 shipped

 

Very easy? What do you consider a difficult repair? It's not very easy, at least in my book. Thats why it costs so much to have a mechanic do it. And I'm pretty mechanically inclined.

I just get a little irritated when people say that a job is easy when its really not. Like some guy told me that replacing an oil metering pump, start to finish, is an hour job. Yeah right! I had to remove so much crap that there is no way possible that it could be done in an hour. And then there's the guys who say it should take 30 minutes to install a downpipe for the first time.

 

Replacing the OMP was a 1 minute job for me...but I had the engine out

The FPD is something I was too scared to fix myself, just because fuel...well it's scary. If you have any apprehension, and/or are not mechanically inclined take it to a good rotary shop.

Anyway I really dont think it's your FPD.

 

well i only notice it when its hot outside, like when the eastcoast had that 90 weather 2 months ago, the car is not even on just as soon as i would walk up to the car i can smell it but the thing is i only smell it on the driver side near the rear wheel and near the door, i did open my hood and notice i small hint of gas,

 

Do you see any signs of physical leakin? spots on ground or anything like that? (then check the lines above the spots) Or is it pretty much just fumes? (then like the others have said, your best bet is the charcoal canister)

 

well the only leak that i have would be from the oil pan i change my oil every 1200 miles my 7 has just hit 90,000 and its a daily driver, so when im doin that i see no other leaks on the ground. just the fumes of gas, but i will attept to do my vacume lines and when im there ill change out the black can

 

This sounds alot like the charcoal canister. Mine was doing the same thing. When i came to a stop I would sometimes smell fuel through the open window. Other times I would wiff it right after stopping the car, and getting out.

I was going to replace the charcoal canister, which is on the drivers's side, behind the driver - and can apparently vent to atmosphere at idle-stop if it's saturated.

But the part wasn't available, and it also turns out that my fuel filter was really dirty. After changing the fuel filter I have not noticed the smell at all.

FYI the canister is like a $350 part.

So if you haven't changed the fuel filter in awhile, maybe give that a try - good for the car anyway.

 

Very informative. Good job.
Jim

 

oh ok that much for the part 350 wow well i did get the fuel filter change out in nov of last yr. so it has to be the black can, i thought that someone said that i could get the part from mazda comp for about 100 bucks

 

Did replacing for canister solve the problem? This thread is so old not sure if I can bring it back to life.

 

^^ lol... Given that mazda/feed's last post was 06-15-05 (7 years ago) I doubt he is going to answer you any time soon