Fuel leak

[wildfan17]

Well yesterday I thought I had gotten the festiva ready to rock and roll for when the snow is all gone. Oil change, installed the new short shifter, got the heater working etc... Filled her up with fuel and she purred like a kitten. This morning I head out to grab the mail and smelled fuel. Sure enough under the festiva was a big pile of yellow snow, sadly gasoline not piss. I knew she had a small fuel leak when I filled her all the way up so usually I only put in 10 bucks at a time. I'm not positive where it is leaking from I just laid on my stomach and peaked under and it appears to be leaking somewhere close to the top of the tank on the drivers side front corner area. I'm not sure if the tank itself is leaking or a line. I have a few questions, is this common? I live in Minnesota and they dump salt on the road like it's going out of style. So she's starting to rust up under there. I have a feeling I should replace the tank and the fuel lines. Therefore where is the best/cheapest place to get these and how hard and time consuming is it to do. I work on call 24/7 on the railroad so I'm in hotels more than I'm home and usually I'm sleeping when I'm home... Would it be best to goto a shop and have it done? Thanks guys

[bravekozak]

There was a recent post regarding the exact same problem. Searching.

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?35007-What-have-you-done-to-your-Festiva-today!&p=598430&highlight=gas+leak#post598430

Search for "fuel leak" and "gas leak".
Be sure to use double quotes in order to keep both words together as a phrase.

[wildfan17]

I tried looking, maybe I didn't search hard enough thank you.

[jaketlong11]

mine did the same thing turns out the corner of my tank was bent and started to rust and separated so it was like someone just stuck a drill bit in there and put a huge hole but got it replaced yesterday

[WmWatt]

I spray used motor oil under the car every fall using an old pesticide sprayer. They were easy to get free around here when they outlawed pesticides. Mixed 3:1 with kerosene or paint thinner to make it viscous enough to spray. Kept gas tank from rusting. Oh, and I cover the garage floor with old newspapers, and ignore the drips in week to come.