I figured out the gas smell on cornering problem!

[mike944]

I finally figured out why my car smells of gas with a full tank, under hard left cornering. (sorry i don't have a digital camera to post pictures, you'll have to picture it in your head, or go out and look at your car)

The gas cap has to be cranked down REALLY tight, which is very difficult to do, because the gas cap clicks when you reach a certain torque with it.

now you're probably all thinking "it can't really be that simple, i tighten my gas cap all the way"

If you remove the cap, and look at the filler neck, you'll notice it's not perfectly round (at least on my car it's not) it looks something like the top of a pitcher, almost like it has a spout at the bottom. I don't know whether it was designed this way, or it's just become like that because of being beat on by gas pump nozzles over the years. but the o-ring on the back of the gas cap doesn't seal correctly against it, because it's not round. I realized this once, after smelling gas, i got out of the car and noticed the side of the car was wet with gas. Ever since then, i've been really cranking it down tight, my problem has gone away. Because the cap clicks, and skips, which is specificaly there so you don't overtighten it, i really have to work at it hard, to get it really tight.

I don't know if this will help everybody with this problem, but it helped me.

good luck
Mike

p.s. if anybody tries to straighten out their filler neck, DO NOT USE STEEL TOOLS on it. steel tools can cause sparks, which could cause cause an explosion.

[TomH]

Sounds like the PO left the nozzle in, and tried to drive away from the gas station, for you to have flat spot on it. Mine's round.

[ChrisM]

My '88 951 has the same problem. Hard left hand turns (especially autoX or TT) cause gas to pour down the fender. The real fix is to replace the filler pipe ($300 part), but that looks like a fairly big job. Instead, I'm trying to create a better gasket for the cap. That and my locking cap doesn't have the lock, so I can block the release that prevents over-tightening. The next autoX should show whether this worked.

CM

[Porsche9441984]

I have the same problem of the gas smell in my 84 944 but I never see gas running down the fender. My mechanic said it might be the "evap" system or something like that. Anyone heard of this problem? He also said to fix it involves removing the tranny and gas tank to replace two hoses. anyone know anything about this?

[justin]

My 83 has the same problem.......no gas running out but on a full tank you can smell it sometimes...hmmmm

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Drive it like you stole it........Justin

[Cake944]

I had a cracked fuel rail where the fuel line connects.

[mike944]

there seem to be MANY different reasons why the 944's have a fuel smell at different times. I was simply posting what mine turned out to be.

The most common one seems to be the fuel tank sender. But the fuel rail and/or fuel hoses in the engine compartment has been mentioned a few times also.