strong gasoline smell inside car
 

Just returned from a 175 mile drive. Everything seemed fine. Now 4 hours after parking the car there is a very strong gasoline smell inside the car, with the strongest smell appearing to be in the rear compartment. Car is a 1988 300TE. There is no fuel (or anything else) leaking onto the driveway. Please help.

The EHA valves are notorious for causing the smell of raw gas in the passenger compartment...

Seems to me the odor would be stronger towards the front of the car...

Just trying to help thanks...

Check the fuel hoses near the fuel pump(s) under the car.

make sure your gas cap is tight

I vote gas cap too. Do you make a left turn to get into your drive way at home?

I had my mechanic look at the car this morning. Gas smell had dissapated somewhat overnight. He thought the full tank somehow burped gas out. All he did was check the fuel lines etc and see that they werent leaking. "Keep an eye on it"...he said. Not entirely satisfactory, but at least it wasnt the fuel pump or some other expensive fix. Thanks for the help.

A recent personal experience could possibly shed some light on your potential problem. In retrospect, it was all so obvious.

Pay attention over time whether it takes just a little longer for the engine to turn over/catch each time you turn the key to start the engine. If the fuel line exiting the gas filter has aged enough to develop a pinhole leak, you will smell gas when the engine is turned off as the gas pressure in the line bleeds to atmospheric through the pinhole. Your experience of not seeing a gas puddle on the ground now may change 2 months from now. If the engine was not running (fuel line under pressure) when your mechanic examined the fuel line, chances are he would have missed the pinhole leak. The human nose is fairly sensitive to certain initial smells at low concentrations, gasoline being one of them.

Same this happened to me recently. After trouble shooting all they way back to the charcoal canister under the wheel well, I gave into the obvious and replaced the rubber gasket on the gas cap. No more fuel oders in the trunk or rear seat.

I can remember the day I purchased my used 190E. Driving home I could smell fuel. Initially I was thinking EHA or related fuel leak. On inspection I found one of the plastic hose connections at the temperature controlled valve in the cylinder head for the charcoal canister vapour purge system had broken. With a new valve fitted, no more fuel smell.