2002 360 spider gas smell

driving into work today an I notice a strong gas smell and the car feels slugish. Yesterday I had no choice but to use 91 octane in the car, could this be my issue or what? No check engine light.

 

Sounds more like the tank has cracked at the neck area. you can open your top part way and find two access covers. Remove these and have a look.

 

Gas smell= check the fuel pumps and roll over valves on top of the fuel tanks. smell worse in right vs left will tell u which side to check first..

 

Vent valves at the top of the tank. Sadly, its as common as heat in the sahara.

 

Oh, and I forgot to add if the main fuel line cracks when the car is running, high pressure fuel will probably spray around in your engine compartment.. possibly creating a fireball and some dumba$$ Jalopnik editor commenting on how "Ferrari's love to incinerate".

Ferrari's rec. is to check for fuel in the top of the fuel pump. If no fuel.. It's probably a rollover valve.

 

Thanks guys, will check tonight once I drive home. I opened the engine bay and don't see any gas marks or leaks. any reason for the power loss.

 

Ok so I finally had some time tonight to look into my gas smell issue, so I stopped the convertible top half way and shout the car down and supported the top so it wouldn't sag and I removed the covers exposing the top of the fuel pumps. There is no trace of any gas leak, but the smell is coming from the drivers side. So the question now is to get to the roll over valves do I need to remove the base pan the top sits in, to see the valves or is there an easier way?

 

What's a rollover valve?

 

The gas tank is normally vented to allow evaporation of the fuel to occur. This gasoline right vapor goes to a hollow metal bar by the window in front of the engine compartment. This connects the vapors coming from the top of the tanks, allowing them to vent and then tubes those vapors into a carbon canister on the right side of the engine to prevent destruction of the environment with gas fumes.

If the car rolls over in an accident, there are valves that then "plug" these vent tubes preventing the gas from dripping on the ground and igniting. On each gas tank there is one of these on the top of the tank made of plastic. Its like a ball in a can with a hole on top. When you turn it over, the ball plugs the hole on top.

Luigi, not sure about the removal in a spider. Is there an access hole in the base pan on either side? If you can see the gas tank on either side in front of the engine compartment, the valves are on top...

 

The procedure for replacing the rollover valves in a 360 Spider involves removing the top mechanism. I just had this done last year on my car. Lots of labor...

 

I wonder if there is enough room to squeeze an inspection camera (borescope) in there, between the mechanism, just to take a look? On the coupe, the valves are fairly easy to look at, but I know that the convertible complicates things. I don't own one, nor did I look at one carefully, so I'm just throwing it out there as a possibility just in case someone knows if it would work.

 

no access hole in the base pan on either side for this area, only a panel to remove the fuel pumps.

 

I will re-look at it again this weekend, but I think with the top supported straight up before it starts to lay back I think you might be able to remove the pan. I will let you know.

 

somewhere buried inside of this. small valves, 2 of them

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Folks,

I tackled this project on my 2001 Spider. It's interesting to see in the picture above the EVAP/rollover valves appear to be white plastic. I have read where early versions were orange/or yellow and were very brittle prone to breaking. Mine were yellow and had the very common crack where the hose joins the valve. Check out this thread to see rough position of where the valves are. I can clearly see one to the left of the fuel pump threaded cap and another closer up that looks to be one missing a hose connected to it.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/360-430/374565-evap-valves-dreaded-p0455-error.html#post141577016

 

I just bought a 2003 360 Spider with only 10,000 miles just 2 days ago.

Previous owner complained of slight gas smell, took his car to the dealership, they did a sniff check and visual gas leak checks and could not find anything. So I told the previous owner no problem I will take care of it.

It was 800 mile drive home, and by the time I got home the smell of gas coming from the engine bay is pretty strong. Then check engine light came on.

I am taking my 2 day old car to the dealership but most likely the issue is the same as you guys pointed out here.

Thanks for the great info.

Dan

 

I fixed mine by just cutting a hole in the plastice housing under the convertiable top and then pluging it up. "Sailingmagnus" did it the proper way. It took me about 1 hour from start to finish. I will try to post pictures tonight if I get a chance.

 

anytime you can smell gas, i would not drive it. keep a large fire extinguisher in your car.

have it fixed ASAP by a reputable shop

 

How big of hole did you cut?

 

I had a 2001 and the roll over valve replacement was not an easy project. I think 2003 they changed the design of the pan to have access points to service the roll over valves because it is a common problem. Most 360s as they age are having this issue. It was a bad design that was corrected with a new type seal and valve. I replaced all my seals when the top was off as a preventative measure. When the shop did the fix for me they found that it had already been addressed at some point because it had the new updated seal gasket on the driver side roll over. If you have no access panels then the whole entire top assembly has to be lifted to access them. I f you are smelling gas I would not think it is the roll overs unless you have a CEL on. I had to replace mine had a CEL but no gas smell. Have a leak test done on the system and you will find the problem that way you are not guessing. Good luck I hope you find the issue.

 

I forgot to add this photo
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Hole was about 2" x 4". I cut it with a Dremel. Stopped the roof half way open and supported it so I can shut the car off. One of the pictures I attached shows to arrows, the bumps you see in the plastic are clearance for the tubs to the valves. I use a scope first to find which one was brocken. I cut the side wall of the pocket on a taper so when I put the piece back in it wouldn't fall through the hole. I used a vacuum and a breathing mask, holding the vacuum next to the blade as I was cutting, cutting this type of plastic creates a lot of dust. After I was done I put some high heat black silicon around the edge pressed it back in until it was flush, remove the extra silicon to make it flat and I was done.

I think next time I will cut it a lot cleaner and put an oval shaped rubber plug. The top doesn't rub anywhere when going in, it lays it self flat while folding down.
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Awesome job! Thank you for sharing.

Dan

 

nicely done. You could even put a flush fiberglass cover over it with a rubber seal if you're going to a larger area. Hold it down with some flush stainless hex screws. It doesn't look structural to me..

Nice targeting!

 

Good job redesigning one of the Ferrari's many flawed design!