I had the dreaded gas smell in the garage yesterday and it was fairly heavy. It smelled the strongest by the passenger door on the driver's side. I didn't see anything in the belly pan so I pulled out the rear seat to check the pumps. Here's what I found...

Gas leak around the hose on the pump/filter assembly.


Closer pic showing the connection point and the hose felt a little loose so I can only assume it deteriorated just enough to open a small gap between the hose and fuel outlet.


I already had clamps and 5/16th fuel hose laying around so I cleaned up the mess and replaced the hose with new line, as well as, the clamps. I took the car for a long aggressive test drive afterwards and no signs of leakage.

Since I already had the parts, the only cost was time and that was less than an hour. This is just FYI for anyone running into this problem or your dealer proposing overly complicated and/or costly repairs for what could be a very easy fix.

 

Nice fix and nice photos! Thanks.

 

im getting the heavy smell when i Fill it then its gone, I am gonna check this tomorrow

 

Thanks for the write up! I have the dreaded gas smell too. But recently it went away !!??

Could you tell me how to remove the rear seats?

 

I also had the dreaded smell, but only when the tank was filled completely.

Found out it was the fuel sensor unit, which is (i think) under the rear passenger side (the car had prevoulsy had the pump/filter replacement under warranty). Mine was under CPO extended warranty, so I let the dealer fix it. I could actually see a small amount of fuel had leaked into the padding around the unit.

To remove the rear seat base, you can feel under the front lip of the seat itself and you find a "hole/indent" that you push your finger into to unlatch a spring clip. Do this on the passenger and driver side front edge then the seat just swings up and out.

 

Thanks! Will they a look underneath the seat the next time the gas smell comes back!

 

Great info!

 

There is a voluntary recall on just your problem. Its good you took care of it ASAP.

It's a lot of work to remove the rear seats to get to the pump and filter units.

 

I removed my seat to look for the gas smell and leak only when filled,The pump module seal is my problem,the hose is fine,I stopped at the dealer and picked up new seal and clamp and will change it out sat.

 

i thought i had the same issue. problem was the fuel tank! dealer replaced entire tank with a new one. thanks CPO.

 

Did they charge or was it a safety recall?

 

wasn't a safety issue. Warranty covered under CPO for new fuel tank.

 

211's have issues with fuel tanks leaking. Will often get fuel smell when completely full. There is a hose connection on the top of the tank that will leak at the plastic welds. Unable to see the connection from the left or right sides under the seats. Also left side sender (drivers side) is fuel filter module, and right side is the actual fuel pump. There is a campaign out for 211 AMG's to replace the fuel filter module if it has certain part numbers.
Also fuel tanks should be covered under emissions warranty which is 8 years 80k miles

 

Is there any problems that may arise due to the leaky tank?

 

The word BOOM comes to mind...lol

 

fixing mine at the dealership this weekend...

 

Sh*t, well I guess I should just let my g/f drive the car then Lol, I don't even have a g/f.

 

haha there is a remote possibility of kaboom, but most common problem besides
smell is setting a check engine light due to minor evap leak

 

BrianS, I'm having this same problem: I get a very strong smell of fuel after filling up all the way, and then it goes away after ~30 miles of driving. I have it a good look today after a fill up. Here's what I found:

Leak under the seat (pic 1):


Notice the puddle of fluid. There doesn't immediately seem to be leaks around the hoses like yours, though. This was w/in 1 mile of a fill up, though, so if fuel would ever come out, I expect it would have been coming out at the time I took this picture. Also, notice the text on the hose doesn't appear on yours. Is this a sign of a previous replacement? Lastly, notice the color of the fluid. Gas isn't that dark! What could that be (Pic 2)?


Question: I may go ahead and replace the black fuel hose just to see if that fixes it, but I didn't check what types of clamps are in-place and where the other end of the hose goes that it connects to. Does it just go a couple inches and connect to another nozzle similarly to how it does on the tank outlet? Can I just get it done w/ 3/8" fuel hose and normal screw-type clamps?

For those who are interested, I went under the car to see what it looks like. These shots were taken on the left rear undercarriage after the under cover was taken off.

Here's where the fuel appears to be coming from. That's the driveshaft you see in the forefront and the front of the car is towards the 4 o'clock position (Pic 3):


And eww that's not good. If you happen to see this on your car, don't automatically assume this is fuel. I say that because I pulled off the right side under cover to make sure the leak was only on the left side of the car, and the right looked similar, but I concluded there was no leak there. For those who don't know, gas is not colorless and is slightly oily; it's about the color of very bad olive oil or some cologne. Anyway, the right side looked similar, but it was just from water (Pic 4):


Please let me know your advice on the next step for fixing this. Nubby Alert: I don't really know what that circular thing is in the top Pic 1. I think I could swap it out myself, but I'm just researching at this point. I still need to determine if this is the one and only source of the leak. Otherwise, there will be increased scope for the fix.

Thanks, guys!

 

THe dark marks are from fuel,just old fuel that sat in there and dried up.
dont touch the hose if you can see its not leaking there,if it was leaking from that hose
it would leak ALL the time,as it is under pressure anytime the engine is running.
Mine looks exaclty like this,i did remove the pump and the factory seal for hte pump assembly was shot,installed a new one and it still leaks a bit after a fill up,not enough to notice if you drive a gallon out of it,but if i go right home and park there is always a puddle and gas smell there in a few hours.
Im gonna take it apart tomorrow night and really search but i am betting there is a crack in the neck of the tank.

 

My car had the same problem... took it in due to the gas smell and they replaced the fuel sender & seal... next day, CEL came on and 'check fuel door' comes up in blood red, fuel light starts flashing. Took it back in, guess they're replacing the whole tank now.

YAY CAR

 

The best part of repairing something is the test driver after wards.

 

I have the same problem as the guy at the top of the post. Fuel pooling at the bottom of that part. What exactly is this part? What does it do? I've been searching MB parts sites but cannot see anything that looks like it (in parts photos).

I took the car to my local guy I use and told him to replace the black hose. He called me back today and said that he thinks the plastic teet to which the hose attaches is cracked because tightening the clamp makes the fuel spurt worse. He wants to replace the whole assembly (whatever that thing is) for $600. Yikes, I thought I would only need the hose replaced. Now I'm not sure what to believe.

I called my stealership and they took the VIN number to check if there was any recall for this. No news from them yet. Car is 2005 with 63K - out of warranty. Anyone know about a recall for this problem?

Thanks

 

I had this fuel smell also which would come and go. I dont have a warrenty,

but fuel pump/sender got replaced under a simple recall replacement by the MB dealer at no charge........................ no smell now . This recal applies to every e55 owner with this problem?

 

Thanks, that's encouraging. Don't suppose you have the recall information on your paperwork by any chance?