I bought my 97 z28 around Christmas time( Merry Christmas to me!!!) and noticed from day one that I was smelling fuel, mostly after I shut the car off and got out. I keep looking under it for puddles of anything but I never see anything...I was without it during Jaunary but got it back Superbowl weekend and noticed that my gas mileage is now dropping...like from 250 a tank to 150...could this smell be due to a stopped up filter or am I smelling exhaust? Any ideas pls?

 

A clogged filter is not going to worsen fuel mileage, but can keep the engine from running. Considering the fuel mileage got so much worse, you should be looking for engine trouble, or an actual fuel leak. Fuel leaks are hard to spot unless they are quite large, as gasoline evaporates very fast, especially on a hot engine. Don't wait for a fire to tell you where the leak is taking place.

 

Yeah man if you smell gas that muchyou more than likely have a fuel leak=DANGER DANGER!! You could be running the risk of a potentially fatal fire, not just for your car but for yourself. Get it checked out immediatly....

 

Does this happen all the time or only when the tank is full? Reason I'm asking is because I had that same problem and like you I could not find out what was the problem. It came down to a faulty gas cap. The cap was letting fumes escape and believe it or not your gas does eveporate. When the tank was full then gas would actually leak out. I bought a new gas cap and I haven't had any problem since. Hope this helped.

 

Another thing to consider...

Is the car running right otherwise? If it feels a bit slow/lopey like it's missing a flowled plug could mean that you're pushing unburnt fuel into the exhaust.

 

I had a 1993 Firebird Formula and it leaked gas... Im talking a puddle from the bottom of the car to the middle of the street... Id check for a leak or hole in the tank it could be real small and towards the top or even the lines going to the tank... pretty much you can take anywhere and they will check it for free