Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Cold Weather and Fuel Smell (longish)

Well, I drove to Idaho to visit the family for thanksgiving. Its a little colder there than in cali. The morning when I left, my car was completely frozen over. I started it to let it warm up and after awhile I noticed a strong fuel odor. The exhaust smelled like gas...real bad! I hit the throttle a couple of times to see if it would change and it did. The exhaust didn't smell as bad...But on my long drive back I still had a fuel smell coming through the vents. I popped the hood and sure enough could smell a gas smell coming from somewhere beneath or around the left side of the engine maybe directly below the upper intake manifold. My first thought is injectors. I have never had this smell before...why would one cold start like this trigger it?

Another strange thing is...with my T-bird I would always buy cheveron gas believing it was cleaner because of the techron and all that bs. With that car I developed a fuel leak around a injector that only seemed to occur when I bought cheveron gas (believe it or not). The smell wasn't there if I bought another brand of gas..and my nose is pretty sensitive. With my contour I have bought cheveron gas religously and I'm thinking ...maybe what ever cleaning additive they use in their gas has finally done me in. The intensity of the odor reminds me of the injector leak on my t-bird. I just got back and havent had a chance to buy another brand of gas to see.