Hi All,
I got the bug for one of these 80's things, and after a long time lurking classifieds I finally pulled the trigger on one a couple months ago. It's been great but I'm experiencing a pesky issue and I'm posting the symptoms and what I think are relevant details in hopes that a cruiserhead out there can save me some more time and $$ in chasing this down.
Symptoms: 1997 LX450 171k miles. I first noticed a strong fuel smell on startup and idle, and thought it was just running a bit rich at startup. Then I started to notice that the exhaust/fuel smell is coming into the cabin, and seem to have pinpointed that it is coming in through the outside air vent (toggling to the air recirculator eliminates the smell). The vapor smell occurs only at idle/stop, not when the car is moving.
This had the hallmarks of being a potential exhaust leak so I've had it looked at by an exhaust shop (twice) and they are telling me that they do not see an exhaust leak. I have also been driving with a CO detector and so far no hits on that either.
In digging in some more, smell seems to be more like fuel vapor and it is strong outside of the driver side front of the vehicle. Under the hood I'm tracing the strong fuel smell to the area near the charcoal canister, so I thought that would be the culprit. Last week I swapped out the CC with an AC Delco non OEM unit and although the canister seems to be working better (no more pressure/whoosh sound coming from the gas cap anymore), the fuel vapor smell persists in the cabin and around the car (Son-of-a...). I should also note that the smell consistently there every time I run the engine.
Here's where I'm at with it now, and I would appreciate and value the feedback of anyone that may have an idea of what the culprit is before I start replacing more stuff.
1. Leak in one of the hoses connected to the CC or somewhere in the EVAP system. I'm planning on just replacing them all to see if that fixes it.
2. Leak somewhere else in the fuel line (not sure if this would produce the strong smell so close to the driver side of the engine bay or not)
3. Catch can/hoses/PCV valve etc - anywhere else that could be leaking that could produce a strong fuel smell on one of these rigs?
Here's some additional background on the vehicle: As mentioned, the headgasket most likely blew at some point because I was told by PO that a lexus tech buddy of his rebuilt it around 160k miles. No paperwork. I did check the head and the VIN on the head does not match the VIN on the vehicle door.
-You can tell the valve cover gasket was done recently, and all of the hoses coming from the top of the engine (eg PCV) are routing to a catch can mounted on the edge of the driver side firewall.
-Custom exhaust has been put on at some point
-not seeing much fluid leaking from anywhere at all, no fluid on ground ever beneath the car. There may be a very slight power steering pump seepage
-I plugged in an OBD2 reader and not getting any error codes
-OBD2 says the engine coolant sits between 178-181 depending on the outside temperature I've driven it in (30 degrees F - 80 degrees F outside temps). From what I understand this is a bit low (definitely seems to be running rich, whether or not that is a CF to the issue I'm not sure.
-the lines going to/from the CC look good to my eye.
If you made it to the end...you're a trooper. Thanks for your help!
I got the bug for one of these 80's things, and after a long time lurking classifieds I finally pulled the trigger on one a couple months ago. It's been great but I'm experiencing a pesky issue and I'm posting the symptoms and what I think are relevant details in hopes that a cruiserhead out there can save me some more time and $$ in chasing this down.
Symptoms: 1997 LX450 171k miles. I first noticed a strong fuel smell on startup and idle, and thought it was just running a bit rich at startup. Then I started to notice that the exhaust/fuel smell is coming into the cabin, and seem to have pinpointed that it is coming in through the outside air vent (toggling to the air recirculator eliminates the smell). The vapor smell occurs only at idle/stop, not when the car is moving.
This had the hallmarks of being a potential exhaust leak so I've had it looked at by an exhaust shop (twice) and they are telling me that they do not see an exhaust leak. I have also been driving with a CO detector and so far no hits on that either.
In digging in some more, smell seems to be more like fuel vapor and it is strong outside of the driver side front of the vehicle. Under the hood I'm tracing the strong fuel smell to the area near the charcoal canister, so I thought that would be the culprit. Last week I swapped out the CC with an AC Delco non OEM unit and although the canister seems to be working better (no more pressure/whoosh sound coming from the gas cap anymore), the fuel vapor smell persists in the cabin and around the car (Son-of-a...). I should also note that the smell consistently there every time I run the engine.
Here's where I'm at with it now, and I would appreciate and value the feedback of anyone that may have an idea of what the culprit is before I start replacing more stuff.
1. Leak in one of the hoses connected to the CC or somewhere in the EVAP system. I'm planning on just replacing them all to see if that fixes it.
2. Leak somewhere else in the fuel line (not sure if this would produce the strong smell so close to the driver side of the engine bay or not)
3. Catch can/hoses/PCV valve etc - anywhere else that could be leaking that could produce a strong fuel smell on one of these rigs?
Here's some additional background on the vehicle: As mentioned, the headgasket most likely blew at some point because I was told by PO that a lexus tech buddy of his rebuilt it around 160k miles. No paperwork. I did check the head and the VIN on the head does not match the VIN on the vehicle door.
-You can tell the valve cover gasket was done recently, and all of the hoses coming from the top of the engine (eg PCV) are routing to a catch can mounted on the edge of the driver side firewall.
-Custom exhaust has been put on at some point
-not seeing much fluid leaking from anywhere at all, no fluid on ground ever beneath the car. There may be a very slight power steering pump seepage
-I plugged in an OBD2 reader and not getting any error codes
-OBD2 says the engine coolant sits between 178-181 depending on the outside temperature I've driven it in (30 degrees F - 80 degrees F outside temps). From what I understand this is a bit low (definitely seems to be running rich, whether or not that is a CF to the issue I'm not sure.
-the lines going to/from the CC look good to my eye.
If you made it to the end...you're a trooper. Thanks for your help!
