Smell gas--'05 Civic

Hi,

Today when I started my car after digging it out of snow, I smelt gas.
Since I am a very first time Honda owner, I am not sure if this is
usual for a car with barely 2000 miles on it. I'd love to hear your
opinion. Thanks!

BTW, I also own a Jetta. When I started it just now, I did not smell
gas. It makes me think if it is possible that the fuel pipe got frozen
or broken...

Regards,
Doug

 

You likely do not have a problem , under the circumstances I would say just
had some exhaust fumes trapped in the snow. I wouldnt worry about it.

 

I have a 2001 Civic LX . . . . 90,000 km . . . . and have recently
noted the same thing. Moreso at the -20 to -40 C weather we have been
having. Never occurred prior to this. Has anyone any knowledge that
this could simply be a normal occurrnce during winter conditions or
perhaps indicative that the car needs some slight adjustment?

 

A repost from an earlier query.

This problem with the gas odour persists. The odour is coming from
the exhaust. Occurs after about 20 - 30 seconds from a cold start.
Occuring in the warmer spring weather as well as (previously) cold
weather starts. Continues for some 10 - 15 seconds.

Had the car in to Honda a few weeks back. They indicated there were
no abnormal readings detected during their testing of the vehicle.
However, this was done on a very warm vehicle after a good 200 km
ride. Because I live in the "sticks", it's difficult for me to leave
it overnight to test at cold start. But it may be coming down to
that. The dealership had indicated that they wouldn't detect anything
different even if it was cold. I don't have an answer at all for this
one, but it certainly is a strong gas odour that is detectable with a
VOC meter.

Any idea whatsoever??

 

I am not convinced that you have a problem. During a cold start, the ECU
will enrich the mixture. This will cause some amount of HC in the
exhaust and also cause very little, if any, O2 in the exhaust. With the
catalytic converter being cold and starved of O2, whatever HC is in the
exhaust will not be converted to H2O and CO2 in the converter. The
composition of the gas would make a difference. Oxygenated gas could be
expected to cause less of an odor on cold engine.

If there /is/ a problem, perhaps one of your injectors is leaking, so
that gas is building up in the intake over night. That could cause
excess gas in the exhaust on startup. Perhaps you could hook up a fuel
pressure gauge and see if the residual pressure is dropping over night?
Is the engine ever difficult to start?

=======================================================

A very modest collection of Honda tech info can be found at:
http://www.geocities.com/ng_randolph

 

No difficulty in starting the engine. What alerted me was that I also
started the vehicle in the garage prior to opening the garage door.
Never any gasoline odour whatsoever, until this past winter. And the
odour persists now, even with the warmer temps.

You mentioned the composition of the gas. I was thinking perhaps a
winter fuel problem, but this car has been through various fuel
suppliers for four winters now, and this is the first winter that the
odour was noted.

I'm tempted to bit the bullet and haul it into the city overnight for
a cold start at the dealership. The strong fuel odour is a black and
white issue at startup.

Thanks for the thoughts.