I am going to have a look at the end of September when I take the car off the road. Thanks for the really good thread and particularly the advice for the bulkhead removal. Steve

Hi, im experiencing a lot of fuel smell in my cabin and trunk, opened it up and everything looks perfect. Smell is coming from near the Fuel Vapour Separator so i was also thinking of solving it like you did. Thats how i found this forum. Now my question is: do i have to isolate it completely? Can I leave all but one tubes attached? If not: how did you create the T, does this not cause pressure problems? And what to do with the one that goes to the charcoal unit? Grtz and thanks

Hi

Best way I can describe what I did is that the two pipes which take fuel vapour from the valves on the top of the tank now go to the T-piece I mentioned, and a third pipe then leads from the T-piece down through the floor to the junction/union under the floor which then takes the vapour to the charcoal canister. Obviously there was more detail in the earlier posts. The original pipes going to and from the segregator are all sealed so that the unit is isolated. It's probably not crucial to isolate the segregator permanently as once whatever's in there has evaporated, it won't create any more smells as it's no longer connected to the tank but sealing it gives you an immediate idea whether the job has worked or not (given that there seem to be multiple causes of the fuel smell).

There's no pressure issue as the fuel vapour from both valves meets up at the T-piece and then goes to the charcoal unit.

As I mentioned earlier, all I needed to create the new vapour circuit was some black fuel pipe (6mm inner diameter to push on to the exiting blue pipes which I snipped) and the plastic T-piece. Since doing the job last summer I've had no fuel smells at all.

Apologies if I'm missing the point you're querying, let me know how you get on !

I read your original post again and see now where I got confused. So you lead the last part to the charcoal unit, I've misread that because at first you lead it to the exterior behind the car.
This last one was my idea actually. So now I'm stuck with the question: should I best connect the 2 in a T part and lead this to the exterior (or if I lead it to the exterior is the T part even necessary..) sealing off the charcoal unit and the segregator as well;
or do the same thing but lead it to the charcoal unit like you did. What would be the best choice, why did you choose to connect it?...

I tought that if leading it to the charcoal unit this would be a hazard. I can't imagine that the segregator had no function at all... If you lead the pipes directly to the charcoal unit will there not be a chance of pressure problems/Gas going directly in the charcoal unit; and thus creating a fire hazard. ? In my opinion it would be best to lead them to the exterior but I don't know the car very well I've had it for weeks..

Hi, As I mentioned in my earlier posts, by the time I realised that the segregator was probably the cause of the smell in my car, I had already disconnected and isolated the charcoal unit in case that was the cause (some earlier posts by others had suggested that). So in my case, I was always going to vent the fuel vapour to atmosphere at the rear of the vehicle rather than run it to the charcoal canister. But in my earlier posts I included the fact that others would probably rather send the vapour forwards to the canister if theirs was still connected and active, which is where the confusion may have been caused!

The only reason I used a T-piece was because there are two vent pipes leading from the top of the tank, and only one hole in the floor through which the original pipe from the segregator passed on its way forwards to the canister. So rather than create a second hole it seemed simplest to just connect the two pipes together and then have a third leading to the hole in the floor.

I suppose there could be pressure problems with the charcoal canister if the system which controls the way in which vapour is released intermittently from the canister into the intake manifold no longer works properly. Again I remember seeing earlier posts saying that can be the case. If you do decide to seal off the canister, obviously the blue pipe connecting it to the manifold needs to be snipped and each end plugged. Personally I'm happier having the tank vapour venting to atmosphere at the rear underside of the vehicle, in case the absence of the segregator does in some way affect the canister (given it's so close to a hot engine and the fuel supply line, what could possibly go wrong?!!) Having done it my way, I've had no issues at all since doing the job last summer.

I do have to emphasise that I'm not a mechanic and this was part of a trial and error process aimed at tracking down the cause of the smell (yes that was a disclaimer!) But if I was tackling it again I would still isolate both the canister and the segregator and run the vapour to the rear underside. It may not be very green but I've been beneath the rear of the car several times since doing the job and I've never noticed any fuel smell, so I doubt the impact is that great. Just don't light a fag whilst changing your rear offside shock ! Anyway I hope that helps.

Thanks man very very useful info. I'm gonna seal off both and pull it towards the rear as well, seemed to be the right choice in the first place.
No longer shall the Misses her purse smell like fuel every time she leaves it in the car. (because for me honestly I even like the smell, does make me dizzy sometimes so that can't be good... )

Anyways thanks a lot, see you around grtz

No problem, good luck with that. My other half always used to complain about the smell as well, she hates the car and would love me to sell it so I've made it my life's mission to fix every noise / smell she complains about, just to be annoying.

Hi, I want to change the two gasket seals on my fuel tank the pressure vent points numbered 9 on the eper drawings for fuel tank. Hopefully somene has done this before and can advise me. My questions are,
Can I do this with the tank insitue, there appears to be enough headroom from memmory.
How do the vents detatch from the tank to enable the gasket to be changed?
The seals are available from Italy at 15euros each plus postage.
Any advice or how to's will be very welcome.
SteveD

Sorry, thankfully I didn't have to tackle that as part of the work I did. Looks like a cramped area to work in.

Yup not a lot of height in there. Anyone else worked on these?
Cheers

From what I remember seeing when I was working in that area, and from the odd photo of the vents I can see on the web it looks like maybe you can just prise out the seals from the top of the tank perhaps with a screwdriver blade or something (no sparks !) and then push the new ones down into place, presumably having fitted them around the vents first. Perhaps using some grease or something to get them into place without damaging them. That would be my best guess anyway...

Thanks for the comments Criibus, I wil be having a go at this during down time in the winter as I am enjoying the car in the summer too much to take the seats out and back panel. I just restrict mmy fuel tank to half full and no big smell.
So any advice before I satrt is welcome. I will certainly use an old wood spatula or aluminium blade to prize out the seals.
Thanks
SteveD

Hi, I announced some time ago that I had cured my fuel smell, last week it returned. I think because I had filled to the max with fuel. Had really bad smell both in the boot & the cabin, really strong.
So I decided to take the advice of the above post from Cribus and isolate the separator and the carbon filer. However once I started to remove the back panel, I decided to remove the the separator altogether, used fuel pipe and T piece to join the two valves on the tank, and exited the pipe through the same hole as the blue fuel pipe would have gone to the carbon filter.
Moving to the front of the car, I also removed the carbon filter. However I retained the solenoid, this has two pipes one from the canister(this I removed replacing it with the pipe that comes from the separator) the other pipe goes to the inlet manifold.
The blue plastic pipe that came of the separator and exited under the rear of the car, has a connector I removed this and fixed it to my new pipe from the vents, then connected this to the pipe that went to the front carbon filter (now connected to the Solenoid). Unsure if this connection is the right thing to do, but my thought is that any fumes will perhaps be redirected to the engine, rather than just exiting under the car.
All would seem to be working OK. Removing the carbon filter and separator I could see no evidence of leaks or splits in the pipe work. Just hope my efforts were worth the time.

Hi Dave, Yes that sounds like it makes sense. You got the segregator out which is more than I managed, I couldn't see what held it in place ?


My only thought is what if the solenoid isn't doing what it's supposed to do and manage the release of vapour into the intake ? That's what made me suspicious of the canister set-up and decide to just jettison that as well as the segregator.


Hopefully your arrangement will be the solution but if you still get the smell, maybe try running the vapour to the rear underside just to see if it helps ? Oh and I kept releasing the fuel cap now and then in the early days to make sure there was no pressure building up in the tank (there never was).


Touch wood I've still had no fuel smell even when filling right up. Been a good long while since I did the work.

Hi Cribus,
That is an interesting point regarding checking for pressure in your tank. I did and still get a hissing sound as I undo my petrol tank, always assumed this was normal, as others have commented on this. So should we have no pressure in the tank?
I can quite easily disconnect the vent pipe, so that it just vents to the rear of the car. Undoing the pipe from the inlet chamber is also easy by replacing the pipe with a blanking plug. This I may do just to see if I still get pressure in the tank.

Regarding removal of the separator unit, it is held in place with two nuts that hold it in place. The location of the bolts is behind the black side trim panel that wraps around the hood compartment, undo those nuts and extract the unit from where the fuel tank is located
Dave M

Hi Dave


I think some amount of pressure must be normal - whenever I release the cap on other cars there's usually a hiss so I take it that's okay. I can't remember whether there was any hissing with mine before I did the work. Thinking about it, I wouldn't expect mine to hiss now as the vapour pipe just exits to atmosphere with no obstruction from the canister/solenoid up front so I don't see how pressure could build in the tank. Your set-up probably should still give some hiss as the vapour's being fed into the intake via the solenoid which only releases the vapour every now and again (as far as I remember reading). So some hiss should be fine as long as the solenoid is doing its thing and pressure doesn't build too much ?


Next time I have the bulkhead out I'll look at removing the segregator as there's no chance I'll be re-connecting it, thanks for the info on that.

Hi, I have been following this work with interest and there is a school of thought on various other sites that the source of the smell is from the seals surrounding the 2 vents which exit to the segregator. These seals are circa 30Euro each. If changing these seals fixes the problem then it negates removing/isolating the segregater and or the carbon filter. It has also been suggested elsewhere that soaking the vent seals with oil helps to reseal them. Now I just throw this in to the mix to see if anyone out there has anything to add.
This winter I will be looking at changing the seals as a starting point then if this fails to stop the fuel smell when my fuel tank is over half full I will progress to isolating the segregater/carbon filter items.
Presumeably if the seals are leaking, by isolating the segregater and carbon filter this would not cure the smell as the seals precede the other items.
Phew got that off me chest.
Taking out the segregater and carbon filter certainly simplifies the system and reduces the areas of possible weakness and many thanks for sharing the different approaches and solutions everyone. Keep them coming.
Regards
SteveD

Hi Steve, A few winters ago I had my tank out completely, mainly because of this constant smell. I had the tank with about a gallon of fuel in shaking it and tipping it over to see if I could see any evidence of it leaking either from the pump or the seals. I saw nothing I did consider removing the vents and in fact I did make some attempt to remove them, but boy were they hard to move. As they were proving difficult to remove I tried the dealership to see if I could buy replacement, unfortunately Fiat no longer supply those parts. I understand now they are available via a 3rd party.
I did apply some gasket sealant and applied it onto the rubber vent seals, but this was only to satisfy myself that they were sealed.
When I refitted the tank I replaced all the metal clamps with jubilee clips, come spring I was pleased to say my fuel smell had gone, untill last week when I filled my tank almost to the limit, and then the smell returned, so this time I have adopted Cribus's fix. Not so sure yet regards my connecting to the solenoid, jury is out on that at this time.

Regards Dave M

Dave M thanks for the additional info, I may find it impossible to remove the seals with the tank in place and resort to sealing around them as you did. The last time I accessed the tank I checked the connections but I did not check the fuel pump at the top so I will be looking there aswell. Thanks again for adding to the thread.
SteveD

Steve you can access the fuel pump via the aperture inside the hood compartment, but you have to remove the plastic matting first.