My wife's stock 2002 2.5RS has just recently started having this problem. When the car is sitting with the engine at idle, the cabin starts to smell so strongly of gas/raw fuel that it makes my eyes burn and I even start to get a little light headed. The problem doesn't go away once the engine is warmed up. I asked her to take it to the dealership today since she works about a block away. They told her that they couldn't find anything wrong with it, and it could be the cold weather causing the fuel mixure to run rich, and just put the vents on recirc.

I disagree, but they said there is nothing else they can do. I told her to get new fuel and air filters when she picked the car up this afternoon and I would install them myself. The current fuel filter only has about 20k on it though. I couldn't see any visible signs of a fuel leak anywhere under the hood, but the smell seems to be the strongest in the passenger side fuel rail area. Any ideas?

About a month ago, I was getting a raw fuel smell, I put my car on the lift and looked around and I found out that my gas filler neck in the back was leaking. Easy way to spot a gas leak is to look on the ground where you have parked for a long time, Gas should leave a cleanly marked area in the ground for you to notice.

If your smelling gas that strong then something is definitely wrong.

look up raw fuel smell log on search link..


welcome to the club

Yeah, well, I'm no stranger to the raw fuel smell and associated TSB for the WRX. But this is my wife's 2.5RS, and the TSB doesn't apply that model.

o. im sorry.. i skipped through that part


good luck to u anyway!

Yeah, I'm guilty of the same thing. "Smells like gas you say? Easy! It's the leaky fuel line TSB!" Then I got my head under the hood of her car and noticed that the plumbing is totally different. Then I looked at the TSB and saw that it was only for 2.0l engines. Doh!

So this problem is still stumping me. Can anyone recommend a good procedure for finding a fuel leak?

Light a match? Oh, wait.. scratch that, you asked for a good procedure.

Search for "gas leak detection" on Google, and try adding "soap" and "Windex" as those seem to be popular DIY tools.

fuel filter spraying junk all around? dunno id try another dealer than if that one was to stupid to figure it out... or like any place you should ever bring a car sit there and show them the problem otherwise they could care less to try and fix it

check the hose that leads to fuel rails. Let the car run and watch for it. Even smell around under the hood to see whch side. So far I have fixed 3 with the new Gen 2.5 and it was the leaky fuel rail hoses.

If the weather has been super cold the in lines and out line to the fuel filter tend to get a little loose. My buddy was just dealing with this problem, check to see if the lines are loose anywhere.

When you say the fuel rail hoses were leaking, do you mean the clamps were loose, or the hoses themselves were cracked/leaking? I've tried sniffing around, but honestly, it is so strong it's hard to pinpoint the source.

I'm really pissed at the dealership too, I can't believe they would say this is normal.

Perhaps this might help:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=1177511

Thanks for the link, it's nice to know I'm not alone in this. I'm pretty sure the leak is on the passenger side though. It sure would be easy to find if it were a visible drip like yours. At this point I think it's just small enough that it vaporizes right away.

I went through last night and tightened all the fuel line and fuel rail clamps that I could get to. Most were fine, but about 4-5 of them took a couple turns. Unfortunately, the passenger side fuel rail is almost completely covered by a shield that prevented me from getting to all of the clamps.

I definitely eliminated the fuel filter lines as a possible source. It took me about 30 minutes to get the old filter out because the hoses were so tight on it.

Well we just got back from lunch, first drive since I did my handiwork, and it still reeks. Not even a little better.

i now have joined this boat did not have it til my car went to the body shop for two weeks i will try to figure mine out tomorrow

Problem solved! Apparently the shop that did the 60K service forgot to reconnect the PCV hose after replacing the valve. Real nice that the Subaru service department couldn't find that.