Gas smell in cab - no visible leaks - worse when parked

[CarcleR]

Hi - I have 2000 Explorer XLT. It’s a V6, around 150k miles.

Today I noticed it smelled like gas while we were driving. It kept smelling pretty strong. After I parked it for the night, several hours later I ran out to get something from it and when I opened the drivers door - the smell of gas fumes was so strong. There’s no visible leaks, the gas cap seems fine and it doesn’t appear to be coming from the engine area (at least it doesn’t smell like it is. That’s where the smell is the faintest plus I checked around and it doesn’t appear to be coming from that at all). Also our AC/Heater is completely inoperable right now and has been for over a year so we keep that all off so I know it’s not coming through the vents). I’m concerned because we depend on this car for my special needs child to take her back and forth to her specialists so I really need to get this fixed asap. I’m also on supplemental oxygen so I drive with oxygen tanks in our car and I don’t want to risk a fire starting from me driving it - so I need to fix this right away. Any ideas on what it could be?

 

[Turdle]

There are no fuel lines inside the cabin.

After reading full post , and thinking about this,

My advice. Stop driving this and have a mechanic check it out.

 

[Turdle]

If you purchased this used, as in, unknown history,

Look under driver rear seat, carpet. You want to see if an access panel has been cut out of floor.

Fold rear seat down, lift flapper, look down at floor, where the slope turns flat

 

[CarcleR]

Thank you for responding to my post so quickly. Time is of the essence for us right now so it was encouraging seeing someone reply.

I’m apologizing in advance for the long reply- I’m just trying to throw out anything I think could possibly be relevant.

Yeah I knew there wouldn’t be any fuel lines in the cab. Thats why this makes no sense. It seems most people who complain of a gas fume odor inside their vehicle say it is when their heat or AC is on and we can’t use ours so it’s not that.

As far as the vehicle history - it was originally my wife’s uncles vehicle. I don’t believe it had an owner before him. He passed away about 4 years ago and we inherited it and it’s now our only vehicle. I’ve done quite a bit of work on it to keep it going over the last 4 years. Unfortunately I have no clue what he’s had done on it before we inherited it.

Recently I’ve had to drive a good 4 hours a day (round trip) to get to Atlanta and back for drs, specialists, and such. I’ve had to do this anywhere from 3-5 times a week for the past 3 weeks. It’s DEFINITELY past due for a tune up. I’ve been planning on it but it’s getting hard for me to work on it (I have end stage COPD and Congestive Heart Failure. I’m on oxygen 24/7 and have only 22% functioning of my lungs). I was always decent with fixing cars when I needed to. I’m by no means a mechanic but if I can figure out what’s wrong I’m usually able to get it done myself. Lately that’s gotten increasingly difficult - sometimes impossible - but my daughter CANNOT miss these appointments and I don’t have the money for a mechanic as I’m on a fixed income. So I’m trying to find a way to quickly figure out what’s wrong and fix this myself.

Also I don’t know if this could be at all a contributing factor- but our brakes were waring down a few weeks ago. They were making the typical sounds so I knew I was gonna need to change them soon. I looked at them and they had enough brake pad left on them that I felt confident I could fix them in a week when I got paid. Then we began smelling brake fluid from the back passenger wheel whenever we drove. I checked it out and I could see brake fluid was leaking from that wheel. After checking all the different parts, it seemed to need a new caliper so I put in a new one and it seemed great but within 2 days it was leaking again. It’s not leaking as badly as it was initially though. I’m wondering if I just didn’t tighten it enough when I installed it so I’m going to try and retighten it. That was just a couple days ago.

Thankfully we haven’t had to go to Atlanta this week but next week we have to go almost daily so I only have a few days to get both issues resolved. I don’t know if they could somehow be connected. I know that I did some quick searches on possible things the fumes could be and I’ve seen where people who complained about a gas fumes smell in their cab said it ended up being the canister purge valve. I also found a forum where the exact same issue with the smell being bad while driving, but somehow even worse after being parked for awhile, happened to a Hyundai owner and a Hyundai mechanic responded with “This is an EXTREMELY common problem. You'll need a fuel pump, o-ring, and a new lock ring. The fuel tank and lock ring rusts, which cracks the top of the fuel tank. In a few days, your check engine light will come on for a large EVAP leak. The car won't catch fire or explode, but the gas fumes are nauseating. It is a really quick fix…” but since that’s for a newer model Hyundai I wasn’t sure if that would even apply in any way to a 2000 Ford Explorer.

I’m going to check that back floor panel in just a bit and then I’ll post and let you know what I find.

 

[410Fortune]

Okay so the fuel fill hoses and connections are suspect, they have been known to rust out and cause leaks. Usually when over half tank

HVAC system: Fuel vapors are stored ina charcoal canister until they can be purged into the intake and burned up by the engine, these are emissions components. When a canister purge or canister vent solenoid quit working you can get strong fuel smells

The hvac connections and purge solenoid are
Mounted under your battery. These trucks are known to have issues with the hoses and plastic connectors, basically the fuel tank vapors would escape and you get strong smells
Inspect all hvac connections under the battery tray (drivers fender skirt, front)

The hvac system also has the charcoal canister mounted above your spare tire. Again the metal hoses and connections rust out here causing fuel vapors to leak right out and a strong smell of fuel
To inspect drop spare tire and get under there

Brite flashlight is your best friend

Any check engine light or stored obd2 codes? Looking for any canister vent or canister purge codes

 

[CarcleR]

UPDATE - So I was going through the trunk and lo and behold I found the culprit (which was simultaneously a major relief and made me feel like a joke ). I had a can of blaster in my trunk to help loosen stuck bolts when I have to work on my car. Apparently when I put the 3 ton jack in my trunk after working on that brake caliper, I must’ve accidentally set it on top of that can of Blaster because it was crushed and the can split open and half the trunk is soaked in this stuff and the smell is like exhaust fumes.

On that note, I’m still trying to determine what could be wrong with this brake situation. If I retighten it, and it’s still leaking, I don’t know where to look next. No lines are leaking. I put in a brand new caliper and brand new brake pads, yet there’s still a small amount of brake fluid leaking into the rotor area. As far as I can tell and from what I’ve looked up, the brake shoes have no hydraulic parts. So I don’t know where else the leak could be. Any ideas?

 

[wollimann]

You have to clean up the new caliper to see were it's leaking.
Maybe it leaks at the copper rings (always use new ones) or the vent valve. Maybe the rubber brake line
or the brakeline connection.

 

[410Fortune]

Crocs and pb blaster in the air, I feel at home!!!