Petrol Fumes

[pubman]

My daughter has just gone dashing out in her beloved 30th, but i am a little concerned about the fumes which appear to be coming from the rear of the car. Back seat,boot area!!!, any ideas??. Please, no irresponsible father stuff, you have no idea what it,s like trying to stop an 18year old going out on Saturday evening.

[Fatboy]

Spilt gearshit gaiter allowing fumes into the car from a leakt exhaust? Just duct tape round the gaiter and it'll do for tonight - a better look in the morning will sort it, I'm sure.

[paul v]

Could be the tank breather pipe has come off in the boot and is allowing fumes in, my car did that on occasion, also worth checking the other pipes going from the tank.

[Neil8p]

Someone had a similar problem with fumes a while back as they had no rubber seal on the boot.

I assume your car has a seal, but if it's not sealing properly or perished it may let fumes in.

[Cooperman1]

The first question is: are they petrol fumes or exhaust fumes? If they are petrol fumes the problem is probably from the fuel tank in which case you can find it and isolate it. Petrol fumes can get into the car from the boot area as it is not sealed from the passenger area. The leaks are from each end of the rear-seat back panel and from the holes in the parcel shelf where the speakers normally go. On rally and race cars we have to seal these gaps with fibreglass paste, or gap-filling foam, and fit an aluminium plate over the holes in the rear shelf (removing the speakers to do so). A messy job which I've just had to do on my 1990 car. Check the output pipe from the tank into the front-to-rear fuel feed pipe.
If it's exhaust it can, as mentioned, be coming into the boot and thus into the car, or coming in from either the gear shift gaiter, or through the panel between instrument panel and engine bay, or even through the air piping into the heater/blower and fresh air ducts. A leak from the fuel pump piping or the carb could cause petrol fumes to get in through the front bulkhead panel behind the instruments. Again, on race/rally cars those areas have to be blanked off and any air trunking from the engine bay into the car removed for just that reason.
Get it fixed, Dad, it really ain't good.

I hope that helps,

Peter