As I drove this summer with the top down, I smelled gas in the car. When I ran the A/C the smell would come out the vents, too. But now that I'm driving with the top and windows up, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the smell went away inside the car. So it had to be coming from under the hood and wafting back through the air.

So I opened the hood and investigated. The engine is dry EXCEPT for a small drip of gas that is coming out of a flexible rubber hose about an inch wide. The hose exits the top rear of the passenger side valve cover, travels about half the length of the valve cover and then STOPS, open ended. About every 30 seconds a drop of gas drips out.

Anyone have an explanation for this? It is obviously the source of my gas smell.

What car are we dealing with? Your description sounds like a disconnected breather hose, but you shouldn't have petrol dripping out of it.

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83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
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99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

Yes, the car model was a small oversight. 1987 560SL. Thanks for the response. There are similar looking hoses in the same general area, and some of them have a plug in the end. But I can't tell if this one is supposed to as well. There also seems to be a tiny rigid tube, about the size of a toothpick and whitish in color, that inserts into a small branch off this larger tube that gas is dripping out of at the open end.

It should get new hoses every 5 years

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