Strong smell of petrol and (occasional) difficulty starting..?

[a_kirk]

Evening.

I'm getting a really strong petrol smell in the cabin of my VR wagon. Seems to only occur after sitting for a while after driving warm ie if I drive 20 minutes to the mall and return to the car half an hour later it'll stink of petrol before I even turn the key. Ideas?

Secondly, the engine seems to be really random in the amount of time it takes to fire; sometimes it'll start on the first crank, other times it takes a good 5 seconds of holding the ignition. Doesn't seem to be affected by external factors eg the other day I started it on a chilly morning at 5AM and it started almost immediately. Today I warm started it on a hot day at the mall; took a good few seconds of holding to fire. However, I've had the complete opposite experiences as well...go figure . When I bought the car I just thought "hey, it's a big old V6 it's bound to take a while to fire" but I started to question that assumption on the occasions it when it has started really easily. Also, there are times when the starter seems to pretty much stop while you hold the ignition, but then suddenly turns at full speed. The battery is almost 3 years old but still seems fairly punchy; I can't imagine the engine turning over much faster. Is there a way to test the battery at home?

Thanks soo much in advance for any suggestions :-D

[Brett_jjj]

Check to see that the fuel pressure regulator is not stuffed.When its stuffed,petrol can go straight through it, straight into its vacuum hose, then down into the inlet manifold,which can make it hard to start after its been running.When its first started after sitting overnight,this fuel has probably had time to evaporate out of the engine, and thats why it starts easily when cold.

[dylanstone]

got the exact same problem mate excluding the petrol smell, got a mind of its own start good warm, then bad cold.......then bad warm, then good cold. dunno my battery has been dead a couple of times when i go on surf trips with mates and leaving it in the garage for 2 weeks ....... your problem may be fixed with a new batt as i hear your supposed to replace every 2 years? done quote me on that though.

dylan.

[Dum*P*ster]

My old VP did the same thing.. It's most likely your Fuel pressure Reg is shitting it self , took me a wile to find out what it was... lol..

[a_kirk]

got the exact same problem mate excluding the petrol smell, got a mind of its own start good warm, then bad cold.......then bad warm, then good cold. dunno my battery has been dead a couple of times when i go on surf trips with mates and leaving it in the garage for 2 weeks ....... your problem may be fixed with a new batt as i hear your supposed to replace every 2 years? done quote me on that though.

Sounds like you probably have the fuel pressure regulator problem too. Battery-wise, how old is yours? Chances are it'll be the immobiliser (I assume VTs came with an immobiliser?) slowly draining the battery. When I lived in the UK, people used to take their car battery out and leave it with the parking attendant when they went on holiday for more than a few days. And besides, a car without a battery is just as effective as one with an immobiliser ;-)

[a_kirk]

Check to see that the fuel pressure regulator is not stuffed.When its stuffed,petrol can go straight through it, straight into its vacuum hose, then down into the inlet manifold,which can make it hard to start after its been running.When its first started after sitting overnight,this fuel has probably had time to evaporate out of the engine, and thats why it starts easily when cold.

Thinking outside the box; I assumed it was probably due to a lack of fuel but that's a really good point, would definitely explain the smell. Whereabouts in the engine bay is the fuel pressure regulator? Also, am I right in thinking I'll need to remove a fuse somewhere and crank the engine for a few seconds to de-pressurise the fuel system? Finally, how do I check whether the fuel pressure regulator is working as god intended? Thanks.

[dylanstone]

Thinking outside the box; I assumed it was probably due to a lack of fuel but that's a really good point, would definitely explain the smell. Whereabouts in the engine bay is the fuel pressure regulator? Also, am I right in thinking I'll need to remove a fuse somewhere and crank the engine for a few seconds to de-pressurise the fuel system? Finally, how do I check whether the fuel pressure regulator is working as god intended? Thanks.

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would also like to know

[RX25SE]

Any sign of leakage where the fuel line goes into the rail?

Opposite side to the regulator.

[Brett_jjj]

This is a pic of where the fuel pressure regulator is on a VP.The VR should be the same.Also to drop the fuel pressure, pull out the fuel pump fuse, which is located under the bonnet, in the fuse box.Then start the engine.The engine will run for a bit,then stall.Once the engine stalls , open the throttle fully and wind over the engine for a couple of seconds just to be sure the pressure has completely dropped.
[IMG][/IMG]

[VR_Acclaim]

Pull off ur vacc lune and get sum one to block both the line n where it goes on the manifold with there fingure n Lucknow over if it runs fine then bingo...if there's fuel in the vacc line there's ur prob to

[jujibelly]

Could be leaking injectors, had almost the same problem as you.

[a_kirk]

Thanks for the suggestions guys! Doesn't seem to be the fuel regulator, as there's no obvious leakage and after I performed a highly technical indicator test (which consisted of placing fabric between the vacuum hose and fuel regulator ;-) there was neither stain nor smell to make me suspect the presence of fuel.

Anyway, I managed to get my first realistic fuel consumption figure (full tank to full tank divided by km's between fills) and I got what I'd consider to be an amazing figure for a V6 auto wagon; over 550kms, I used 56.78 litres of 91. That's over roughly 90/10% city/highway. This makes my problem all the more intriguing; surely you'd expect my economy to suffer if it was, say, leaking injectors?

Finally, another interesting observation I've made; my Commodore HATES starting when parked on the left side of a strongly cambered street. It'll start (no harder than usual, but then again my usual is pretty poor), but runs very rough, as if only running on four cylinders. This always goes away a few hundred metres down the road. Could be linked to the starting problem. Fuel filter comes to mind; thoughts? Or is this problem/quirk common to all Commodores?

Thanks again, guys! :-D

[Brett_jjj]

Ive read of a lot of commodore wagons being hard to start when parked on an angle.Also a leaking injector wont really effect fuel economy that much,because they dont get time to leak when the engines running.And they would only drip a bit of fuel if they are leaking when the engine is stopped,like they wont drip litres and litres of fuel.Probably more like a cupfull or two.Also they only leak until the residual pressure is relieved from the fuel lines.

[aidanhq]

olds kool and you know it.

[darcycammo]

Could be leaking injectors, had almost the same problem as you.

yes i had the same problem but i didnt have trouble starting mine it just went threw so much petrol and i could smell it till i found out it was an injector that the rubber rings were stuff so got new one and good as gold