Just spent some money on my felicia estate in the hope of a year or two's more cheap motoring. New brakes all round, tyres, zorst, cat, etc; in other words a coupla month's HP payment on something newer.

I've just done a 600 mile round trip to Devon and noticed fuel smells. My local garage conirms the exhaust does have a petrol smell and the tick over is a bit lumpy. As there is no obvious leak or sudden drop in economy their diagnosis was book it in and we'll have a look or live with it.

Could it be an engine management problem? If so how do I fix it?

It might not be, hopefully it is not as serious as the ECU. I had a similar issue with an Alfa, it turned out to be the lambda sensor, as it failed the engine was over fueling, it didn't get picked up until it failed the MOT for emissions.

ECU's don't tend to fail in such a manner. It will either work or if it is broken the car won't run at all.

The lambda sensor was changed about 6 months ago.

Have you changed the fuel filter? I had one that was gunged solid and that was causing a lumpy idle. Btw, its handy to have a set of bent nose pliers before attempting this one

Just been through a major service with the fuel filter ticked on the list. Whether it was done or not is another matter but the garage are pretty straight in my experience.

sounds daft, but my car smells of petrol if I forget to open or close the flap in the air filter compartment from summer towinter or vice versa.