Keep smelling gas

[lilred]

My dad has a 1989 festy and you can smell gas outside the car. There are no visible leaks. I pulled the acess panels out from the side and above the tank and everything is dry. The cap hisses when you pull the cap off when it is low. i would like to make sure that this isn't a unsafe thing.

[mechanicaldj]

266 posts and you don't remember??

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3590

[packrat427]

Is this car carb or FI. ??

If carb ,it could be your canister is full of gas , just a guess.
If FI. it could have a injector o-ring leaking and burning off the reside on the head when shut off.
And also could be the Evap canister not being purged correctly , and could have gas in it .

[lilred]

sorry about that it is a carb'd 1989 ford festiva with a 4 speed

[mechanicaldj]

most likely be you charcoal (evap) canister not purging like PR427 said

there should be a vacuum line that runs from the canister to the purging valve then to the intake manifold

[WmWatt]

I get an odour when I accidentally knock one of the vaccum lines on the charcoal cannister off a connector when I, for example, change the fuel filtre on my carb'd '89. Mostly happens at the plastic "T" connector next to the check valve. The charcoal cannister is on the front fender on the driver's side. It's purpose is to capture fule fumes evaporatin out of the engine while it's parked so they don't pollute the atmosphere. The fumes are stored in the canister and sucked back inot the engine next time the engine is tarted.

[neanderpaul]

I think the canister is also supposed to imporove fuel economy.

[lilred]

could it be a bad gas cap

[Fordverde]

I used to have the same problem. I got tired of guessing what it could be, so i took the tank off and check all hoses and seals, and i found out that it was a lose hose clamp. It didnt leak unless you fill up the tank and either way, the level gets down quickly, so youŽll never see any leaks

[5.0zone]

Mines doing the same thing. It smells the strongest by the drivers side.
Since the weather has gotten cooler its not been as bad.

[Tom]

Follow the gas line from the gas tank to the fuel filter and then to the fuel punp and then to the carb, now that the breather is off look all around there too at the carb. You should find your leak, use a good bright flashlight.

[rpickle]

When my fuel pump went bad, it was blowing gas out a tiny hole on the bottom of the fuel pump. Not enough to get on the ground, but enough to smell up the place.

Rick

[ectonine]

I have an 89 carb Festiva, and at one point I was smelling gas. It turned out to be the diaphram inside my fuel pump was rotted, and it was misting fuel out of the underside of the fuel pump. If you look under the fuel pump there will be two or three holes for the diaphram to work, and thats where my fuel was coming from--Jeremie

[neanderpaul]

When my fuel pump went bad, it was blowing gas out a tiny hole on the bottom of the fuel pump. Not enough to get on the ground, but enough to smell up the place.

Rick

Happened to me too on my 6th festiva... 89 L.