I have a 96 maxima that I believe has a fuel leak. I can smell it primarily when I turn the cabin heater on and it is venting in outside air. I have looked at the fuel lines, hoses, filter, around the injectors that I am able to see, and see nothing wet. I have even had the car running, and looked/sniffed around in there, and still am unable to locate the source. A couple times while sniffing around I got a whiff, but then I was not able to pinpoint it. Any suggestions?

 

egr tube and or evap canister. what your smelling is probably the fumes backing up into the cabin. thats why you can't smell it while your outside, look for a egr code or an exhaust code. same thing happened to me, ended up being the egr tube needed replacing. if you have tools, there's a write-up in the stickiies on how to clean the tube, it aint easy. i paid my tech to just replace mine for 350.00.

 

I did have a code, and had the dealer clean the tube for me which made the code go away and it has not come back. The smell started quite some time after that (months), and I have had no codes at all.

 

u might have a leak at ur tank... look under and see if u have any drip stains from ur tank. i never see fuel ive even sat there and lukd at it while my cuzn reved it to the red and notn. but i can smell it and my tank is stained! it was dropped and theres notn leakn, fuel lines are good. so im about to drop the tank personally and check it myself cuz it was done at a shop.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgCLGXTlim0 this is a helpful video

 

Sweet gadget i think I might have to add that to the collection.

 

Just my .02, but when my dad and i had our 91, we had a bad fuel smell like described, but it was only in the winter time when it was 30 and lower outside. Keep in mind, the car sat in the garage overnite, but we found that the fuel line from the front fuel rail to the back was leaking when it got that cold. when my dad would take it in to get something done (rarely) he would have them tighten it because he couldnt get his hand down there, and i didnt have the interest in it that i hold now with my 2 ( i was 10) I think he had told me that the hose clamp was pretty much at its limit when the car caught fire. Whne this happened, it was an electrical fire so was all damaged on the passenger side, insurance fixed the car and while they were at it, dad had them replace that fuel line. After that, no problem at all. I know long story, but check the fuel line going from the front to rear fuel rail.

 

on the 3rd gen that you referenced it is a fairly common issue as the hose gets brittle and fuel seeps through it to cause the fuel smell. It can happen to any car that has rubber fuel lines in a high heat area.

 

Ok, so I picked up one of those UV Leak Detection lights, and made sure I only had a few gallons of gas in the tank, poured the stuff in, even drove the car around a little to mix it in with the gas, and looked all around with the light and my yellow glasses on ...

Nothing! I checked all the injectors, fuel piping, hoses, filter, egr stuff/area, I even jacked up the car and went underneath and looked at the bottom area under the filter, and some other random areas!

I am sure I just missed it, but I thought for sure I would see an obvious 'glow' in one of these places....

 

how much was it and where did u pick it up?! i might to add this gadget in my collection as well!