Fuel smell when your 1G Sporty is cold? Try this...

[Kia03Spectra]

Wonder if this could be the same issue with my 2003 spectra...?

I have the same exact problem, when the car is cold and I turn it on, the fuel smell is so strong it usually gives me a headache... But when the car warms up, poof, no more fuel smell...

Any opinions appreciated, I'll be looking for dripping fuel tomorrow morning... Would be great if this was the issue, easy fix!

[bfunke]

My daughter has a 2002 and has this problem. She also says that the gas spits out of the filler neck when she if refueling the car. Could this be a plugged up fuel vent on the tank? Please help.

[buster]

thanks much for the post,my 02 sportage is doing just this when cold,have ordered new injector seals as I assumed that was the issue. Will now have to check this out.
The car has been to garage already but they did not find problem,will be able to do myself now.

[ncarter124]

Glad to hear. I had this on mine way back when I bought it with 64k miles on it. The Kia dealership said "we can smell it but we can't find it" and weirdly enough the Ford dealership across the street figured it out. Then I did some reading and apparently it is very common. I would plan at least a couple hours to do the job but the good news is that is is reasonably easy to fix and very cheap. Gotta love cheap!

[cjohns79ut]

My sportage has 83k. There is a fuel leak. My mechanic replaced 2 of the fuel return lines and fuel regulator line. Still leaking fuel.. Any suggestions?

[ron1004]

Originally Posted by cjohns79ut

My sportage has 83k. There is a fuel leak. My mechanic replaced 2 of the fuel return lines and fuel regulator line. Still leaking fuel.. Any suggestions?

There isn't too much info to work with here, so the only thing I can think of is to take it to a good mechanic.

[baomo]

Thanks for posting this.
I just noticed this issue on my 2002 in the last 2 weeks or so. It seems to only happen when the weather say in the low 40's or 30's. We've had some days in the 50's and 60's here in Virginia and there is absolutely no smell at all. I'm gonna check it out this weekend.

Few questions...
Is it a standard or fitted hose?
Did you just replace the pinch style clamp with a screw style hose clamp?

[Jet Mech]

Same thing happened with our 2001 Sportage. The diaphragm broke down (dry rot) on the fuel pressure regulator. Became apparent one cold morning and after warming up, fuel odor would disipate.

[etmark]

I replaced the little rubber hose, j shaped on the front of the manifold. Fixed the problem that was driving me crazy.

[Old Retread]

I have a 2000 sportage about 84,000 miles on it. Yesterday I had the gasoline smell, looked under hood and the fuel pressure regulator was wet with gasoline but could not see a leak. I restarted engine and no leak, after turning off engine and waiting about 10 min. I noticed the vacuum hose going to the top of the fuel pressure regulator was leaking because it was very loose on the barbed fitting. My theory is, as long as the engine is running the gasoline is being sucked back into the manifold so no visable leak, but with engine off the pressure in the fuel rail causes fuel to leak back through the broken diaphram in the fuel pressure regulator, if you just tighten the vacuum tube connection it will stop fuel leak but the pressure regulator is still bad and should be replaced. I ordered a replacement yesterday for about $45.00. Might even improve my gas mileage by not having gas sucked out of fuel rail back into manifold. I've only had this car a few months and it has other gas and oil smells inside after setting awhile. I've tried washing off engine and trans. it helped some but smell still there, this fix will help the raw gas smell but also may need to replace more rubber lines that are showing signs of old age (like me!). Thank you all for your information in this forum.