When I fill up my tank I smell gas. Not just at the pump but if I fill it up and park it in the garage it will smell like gas until I drive it for a while and bring the fuel level down. Any ideas what could be causing this?

 

What year is your car? 2003-2004 cars had a recall for a problem with the pipes that connected the two tanks. That could possibly be it but if you smell gas after a refill you have a leak somewhere near the top of the tank, unless you are overfilling your tank.

 

There was a family of moles living underground, The momma Mole stuck her head out of the hole and said I smell Honey.. the papa mole pushed his way up the hole and the two adult moles agreed that they both smelled honey.. the baby mole tried to get up the hole to smeel the honey too but all he could smell was Molasses.

OK, gas smell can come from a recent tank fill up.. it could be a lose connection at the cross over pipe. Sometime some gas can exit the fill nozzle and wind up on the inside ledge of the rocker panel and sit there even after it evaporated, the smell will linger.,

 

It's a 2002

 

That took me a minute, but then...

 

I pump it till the pump stops on its on and then stop, would that be considered overfilling?

I'm very careful filling the tank so as not to spill. Would the possibility of it being fuel pooling behind the rocker panel be reduced by being careful against spills or is it that the fuel leaks from the fill tube somewhere?

As always, your time and input is very much appreciated!

 

There is a drain hole in the catch cup around the fuel neck.. sometimes the fuel will back up and kick off the flow of fuel, when it kicks back it allows a small amount of gas to spit out and go onto the catch cup and out the hole which sits over the inside of the rocker, which coincidentally is right below ( about 26 inches away ) a hatch water drain vent at the hatch area. ( One on each side )

 

What a Forum... all this good information and a few laughs too.
It doesn't get much better than this... well actually if this is a good as it gets, someone shoot me.

 

Technically, having the pump nozzle shutting off the gas flow would not be overfilling.

With that said, it is a bad practice. What if the nozzle does not shut off? There are many cases of that happening. With the newer car designs fuel system overfilling can damage the charcoal filter system.

Also, unless you are on a long trip, why carry around the extra weight of a full tank?