My '95 lives in a carport, not a garage, and I live in the sticks...so rats made a nest in my engine. I recently noticed a strong smell of gasoline especially when I stop at the first light (4 miles). One time I sniffed around the recently shut off engine and the cylinder 5 area seemed to have the strongest gas smell.

I recently had all the injectors replaced around the same time this happened. In fact, that's when I started smelling the gas. I can't bring it back to the dealer that did the injectors because they went bankrupt right after that (sign of the times in the SF Bay Area).

The rats nest: I looked under the hood one day and found all kinds of shredded paper, packing materials, a bag of flower bulbs, acorn shells, chewed up hood insulation, and lots of rat scat. It took an hour to dig most of it out. I even tried using a spray dust-off to blow a bunch off, but I got pelted in the face with rat droppings (that's when I recalled that a 10 year old survey in my county showed 10% incidence of junta virus, which is deadly).

One ignition coil wire pair (near cylinder 3, I think) was chewed up, but the copper wires are 80% still there, so I taped that up.

Any suggestions?

 

rat poison and traps in the car port ...

 

jeez that makes me laugh, sorry

bump for you

 

yeah defently stick some rat poison or something in your engine bay. And hope that those *******s don't end up inside your car. Sucks

 

Rat poison is out of the question since my cat sometimes eats rats (although he prefers to eat mice and lizards).

Yes, the rats nest is amusing...I even saw a rat walk across the hood when I stopped at a light and scramble to the other side and go back under. The next day I saw it again at the same light! (The stop light is at the 7 mile mark, and is usually the 3rd one in my usual trip.)

Anyway, the main *mystery* is a smell of gas at the first stop light after 4 miles of driving. It seems that this goes away after the car fully warms up.

 

You should at least consider keeping your cat indoors until you have the rat situation under control. I strongly suggest placing poison in the engine bay. Not too long ago I was at a body shop and there was a newer Mercedes E class that had one of the main engine harnesses replaced.
A rat had chewed into several parts of the harness, which cost in excess of $2500. Yeah, I know it's a Benz but having a chewed harness would be a nightmare. If you had the work done at Nissan, I would call Nissan consumer affairs to see if they can help you have your warranty honored at another dealer. Otherwise, you could have a leak past the o-rings on the injectors. Also check your send and return lines. I'm not sure why the smell goes away...I had a leak not too long ago but it was always there.

 

well, i dont think mine was rats, but when i first got my car in august, it had a gassy smell, i got real nervous, but then all of the sudden it stopped...i have no idea what it was about. maybe i just had some smelly gas in the tank...

 

PS, about the cat, make sure he dosent get under the hood. my parents cat got under the hood of their car and got its headd cut off when my dad started the car...