Hi,

 

Was cleaning the car over the weekend and noticed a whiff of petrol near the front of the car.

 

Took the engine cover off and noticed that there seems to be a slight seepage (based on the darker staining) of something from the area highlighted in the attached image. The smell of petrol seems strongest here.

 

What is that part of the engine? Is it normal for there to be a slight seepage and a faint petrol smell?

 

Many thanks

Edited 21 August, 20178 yr by ahenners

That's the high pressure fuel pump mate. And is not right

 

16 minutes ago, Legend said:

That's the high pressure fuel pump mate. And is not right

Thanks for your response. Was researching online since posting and thought it is the fuel pump. Looks like a couple of people with similar age GTIs had the same issue on the mk7 forum. Anyone else had the issue with their VRS TSI?

 

Under warranty still so dealer will be getting a call first thing in the morning. 

 

I have been driving it for the past couple of days, but does this present a safety risk if it's leaking (a small amount of) petrol?!

Edited 21 August, 20178 yr by ahenners

No petrol smell is good but realistically since the smell is faint and the leakage apparently minimal then there should not be any safety issues for the few days it should take the dealers to address it. 

All bets off if it suddenly worsens though.

 

Just a thought, probably not a good idea to keep the car in a garage until it's sorted (I don't know if you do) - petrol vapour is explosive. 

4 hours ago, pist0nbr0ke said:

Just a thought, probably not a good idea to keep the car in a garage until it's sorted (I don't know if you do) - petrol vapour is explosive. 

 

No it's parked outside, but good point and thanks for mentioning 

5 hours ago, pist0nbr0ke said:

Just a thought, probably not a good idea to keep the car in a garage until it's sorted (I don't know if you do) - petrol vapour is explosive. 

It is a faint smell of petrol not the Deepwater Horizon

Spoke to dealer; they can't get me booked in for 10 days with a replacement car - which I can't be without.

 

Reckon it's safe to drive until the end of the month?

Run the engine with the bonnet open and see how much is leaking and then speak to the head tech at the dealer to see what he says.

How many miles are you likely to do in the intervening time?

Edited 22 August, 20178 yr by Gerrycan

5 minutes ago, Gerrycan said:

Run the engine with the bonnet open and give it a rev to see if you can see how much is leaking and then speak to the head tech at the dealer to see what he says.

How many miles are you likely to do in the intervening time?

 

Somewhere between 300-500 most likely.

 

Couldn't see it leaking or notice the smell just now when tested, even with bonnet open. Strange as it was noticeable even with the bonnet down and stood near front of car the other day.

 

Hmm.... Will monitor for a few days after making trips etc. I have cleaned up the dark residue from the fuel pump so will see if it returns, to confirm the theory it has a slight leak.

 

Thanks

Edited 22 August, 20178 yr by ahenners

Judging by the accumulated dirt I think you have had the weep for a while (months), so you should be ok for another 500 miles.

I'm assuming the nut is not loose and it is just a permeable seal causing the problem

Keep your fire extinguisher handy though

 

Yeah the nut is not loose; it won't tighten any further without a serious amount of effort applied. The weep as you say could have been there for some time; I've never taken the plastic engine cover off in nearly a year, and it was 3 years old prior to my ownership.

 

Inspecting one of the flex hoses attached to the pump close up, it looks like there might be a slight nick in it where the clamp is tightened on it. This may be where the petrol smell is coming from, and the brown residue on the pump might be a false alarm. The residue on the pump hasn't come back after a fast drive home of 23 miles. Today the smell is only noticeable close up to the pump and related pipes, rather than from outside the engine bay when I noticed it the other day.

 

Will monitor it and see how it goes, definitely less concerned about it now than when first discovered it. 

 

Thanks for your input.

 

3 hours ago, Gerrycan said:

Judging by the accumulated dirt I think you have had the weep for a while (months), so you should be ok for another 500 miles.

I'm assuming the nut is not loose and it is just a permeable seal causing the problem

Keep your fire extinguisher handy though

 

 

9 hours ago, Gerrycan said:

It is a faint smell of petrol not the Deepwater Horizon

 

Of course, silly me 

 

As you were. You might think about taking up smoking in the garage too, it saves getting wet...

22 hours ago, ahenners said:

 

Thanks for your response. Was researching online since posting and thought it is the fuel pump. Looks like a couple of people with similar age GTIs had the same issue on the mk7 forum. Anyone else had the issue with their VRS TSI?

 

Under warranty still so dealer will be getting a call first thing in the morning. 

 

I have been driving it for the past couple of days, but does this present a safety risk if it's leaking (a small amount of) petrol?!

Sounds familiar.

 

I had the same problem which took numerous dealer visits to sort out.

 

Every time it went in to the dealers they could find nothing wrong and they kept saying when the fuel pump fails it sprays fuel anywhere due to the very high pressure.

 

I eventually realised the smell was temperature related. if the engine is warm the smell was worse than a very hot engine. when I got the temperature right during a visit to the dealer they agreed the pump was leaking from the same point as you showed. Apparently they don't change washers or gaskets so the complete pump was changed and the smell and leak has not returned.

 

1 minute ago, RJSvRS said:

Sounds familiar.

 

I had the same problem which took numerous dealer visits to sort out.

 

Every time it went in to the dealers they could find nothing wrong and they kept saying when the fuel pump fails it sprays fuel anywhere due to the very high pressure.

 

I eventually realised the smell was temperature related. if the engine is warm the smell was worse than a very hot engine. when I got the temperature right during a visit to the dealer they agreed the pump was leaking from the same point as you showed. Apparently they don't change washers or gaskets so the complete pump was changed and the smell and leak has not returned.

 

 

Interesting to hear your experience, thanks. Engine was very hot when I got home tonight and the smell was barely there. Cold engine today after being sat in the work car park for hours = smell barely there. On Sunday when I noticed I'd probably been far enough to get it warm, but wouldn't have gone over 40 and not driven long enough for it to be hot.

You have posted about the cars failure and recovery to a dealership, so was this issue ever checked out by them?

16 minutes ago, Headinawayoffski said:

You have posted about the cars failure and recovery to a dealership, so was this issue ever checked out by them?

 

Posted in the other topic but essentially no. Skoda Assist sent an AA guy out and he couldn't smell it or see any obvious issue. I haven't really noticed the smell since so I'm not sure what caused it.

Hi, sorry for lateness here, I had the same problem some months ago (whilst still under warranty) after occasionally smelling petrol for some time, I took the car to the local dealer and said that I wasn't prepared to drive it any further due to it being a safety issue, they immediately took it into the workshop and identified the problem as the high pressure fuel pump failure. They wouldn't even let me drive  the 2 miles to home  and the new pump was fitted within 36 hours , no nasty smells since, I believe  it is a known fault.

 

If you haven't had this fixed yet I strongly recommend that you do without further delay,

47 minutes ago, meteor1 said:

Hi, sorry for lateness here, I had the same problem some months ago (whilst still under warranty) after occasionally smelling petrol for some time, I took the car to the local dealer and said that I wasn't prepared to drive it any further due to it being a safety issue, they immediately took it into the workshop and identified the problem as the high pressure fuel pump failure. They wouldn't even let me drive  the 2 miles to home  and the new pump was fitted within 36 hours , no nasty smells since, I believe  it is a known fault.

 

If you haven't had this fixed yet I strongly recommend that you do without further delay,

 

Thanks for posting your experience! Be interested to hear some more information if you have any.

 

How close to the fuel pump did you have to be to smell the fuel? It's been weeks since I initially smelt the petrol and haven't noticed it since. I'm assuming the fuel pump hasn't failed either as it's working fine (assuming it wasn't a factor in my breakdown last weekend).

 

Did you have any other symptoms other than the petrol smell? As it stands at the minute, I can't imagine my dealer will find anything if I simply drop it down and ask them to look.

It was mainly my wife getting in the passenger side who was telling me that there was a petrol smell, too my embarrassment I ignored her for many weeks. It was  when I had my sleeping grandson in the car  I had parked up  and got out to stretch my legs and noticed the strong petrol smell as I approached the front passenger door,  engine was at full operating temperature. It shocked me to think that I had put my grandson into unnecessary danger hence my words to the dealer. If your car catches fire it may not be just you at risk ! NO VEHICLE SHOULD HAVE ANY PETROL FUMES ESCAPING FROM ANY PART. Get it checked before the worst happens 

21 minutes ago, meteor1 said:

It was mainly my wife getting in the passenger side who was telling me that there was a petrol smell, too my embarrassment I ignored her for many weeks. It was  when I had my sleeping grandson in the car  I had parked up  and got out to stretch my legs and noticed the strong petrol smell as I approached the front passenger door,  engine was at full operating temperature. It shocked me to think that I had put my grandson into unnecessary danger hence my words to the dealer. If your car catches fire it may not be just you at risk ! NO VEHICLE SHOULD HAVE ANY PETROL FUMES ESCAPING FROM ANY PART. Get it checked before the worst happens 

 

Agreed, petrol vapour can be dangerous and definitely not normal if you can smell it and haven't filled up very recently. Since creating this thread a few weeks ago, I'm staying on the cautious side, but I cover about 300 miles a week and haven't noticed it again since. Thanks for your input though, appreciated   

I also had this exact same symptoms and fault, and as other have said the whole pump replaced under warranty which was a relief as I think its an expensive part. Absolutely fine since an no returning petrol smell.

 

 

6 minutes ago, M4rkos said:

I also had this exact same symptoms and fault, and as other have said the whole pump replaced under warranty which was a relief as I think its an expensive part. Absolutely fine since an no returning petrol smell.

 

 

 

Thanks, I've got a month left of warranty so will keep an eye (nose) out for it returning and get it booked in ASAP if it does.

I’ve had same. Now in garage. thanks to this thread I found out the problem

Got the same problem on my car, but the dealers are quoting £680 to replace the pump (car is 5yrs old) There must be a seal or something under that thread to replace? Has anyone taken the sensor out at all? Workshop manual doesn't mention a seal...