Hi Guys,

I recently brought an 2005 RX8 around a month ago with a full engine rebuild that has around 47000 on the clock.

Whenever I start the engine (hot or cold) I can always smell petrol fumes.
I was just wondering if this is normal or something that needs to have a look at?

The car will be going back to the same garage once it has done 1000 miles.

Thanks in advance and any advice given.

 

There has been issues with fuel lines leaking in the engine compartment after a rebuild or re/re

The fuel pump and fuel tank rings are another source of potential problems

I would check out those 2 spots. If you have no CAT though a fuel smell isn't that out of the ordinary

 

Pull the back driver seat up and out, then remove the fuel pump access panel. See if there is any fuel leaking by the pump itself.

Open the hood an inspect the fuel fittings in there. 1 by the master cylinder (red ring) and then there are a few more under the UIM.

99% chance it's one of those. The plastic disconnect fittings imo are a bad idea to reuse. Also, there are recaps on the fuel pump for possible leaks

 

I have an issue with petrol smell , mainly when im stationary at traffic lights etc
is it at all possible that when engine is idling its not burning all the fuel ?
so if i renew the coils plugs ht leads etc it could cure this?
any help appreciated ,,,thanks in advance

 

^^ Yes, yes it is. And it could kill your engine, so get that looked at.
But you need to narrow down if the smell is coming from the exhaust (confirming that it's running rich and needs attention) and not from inside or from under the hood, in which case you have a fuel leak and need to make sure you don't start a fire.

 

I had that about a year ago, it was one of the fuel injector gaskets leaking. It would smell of fuel inside, with the cabin all closed.

 

Thanks you all ,,,i have managed to get Mazda to investigate for free i think ...
as the car had just been with them for some recalls and they mentioned that they had done
fuel lines , i will take it in next week and keep you updated of there findings , assuming they find it
i took the inside petrol cover plate off underneath the rear drivers side and didn't find any
evidence of leeks,,,,actually that fuel injector leak you mentioned sounds a big possibility
as the car had recently come out of 8 years of storage
i will keep you posted ...thanks all

 

i have this problem but when im at full throttle near redline, cabin will stink and i'll be forced to open the windows, not really a fuel smell but an odor of something burnt. i have a racing beat header that i never capped off ( air injection) could that be a possible cause?

 

I just picked up the car from mazda ...it seems that its possible that the smell is coming from bad joints on the exhaust , i guess this is possible ...i thought it smelled like clean petrol but anyways ,,it does make sense in that the smell seems to be coming from the air vents and can only smell when stationary ie waiting at traffic lights ..as when driving obviously the wind is taking the smells to the back underneath the car....any comments ideas will be gratefully appreciated
in the meantime i will try to sort out the bad joints on the exaust

 

Then it's likely from where the exhaust manifold/header meets with the mid-pipe.

I had the same issue when I had a local exhaust shop put the BHR mid-pipe on my car. Cabin smelled like exhaust when idling in traffic. Exhaust also sounded a bit off(more "farty"). Went back to the shop and asked them to inspect their work, and sure enough, they detected a leak. They put some exhaust seal on, reconnected the pipe and that was the end of my problem.

 

unknown jinx exactly the same snap
Seems it was slight blowing from exhaust at the 1st joint to the cat turns our blowing out the top of joint directly up ...i had a new gasket set and resealed from local exhaust shop cheers all

 

 

Yes it did fix my issue there was slight exhaust leak right at the top of joint
directly under the engine .....
the fumes were traveling upwards directly into the path of
the air intake vents to the car smell was always there but worse when certain
vent settings where used
i paid an exhaust centre £50 for new gasket kit for front and back all resealed
regards