fuel smell when parked in garage

Discussion in 'Mechanics Garage' started by SteveWJ, Nov 24, 2020.

  1. SteveWJ

    SteveWJ New Member

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    I have a 4th Gen 1995 RC36, and I have an integral garage, so of course, she lives in there.

    But the bedroom is above the garage and the Mrs is claiming and complaining she can smell petrol whens she's in bed. So my baby doesn't have to live outside and I have to buy a cover, I would like to get to the bottom of this. This complaint is made even with the roller shutter door closed. The garage is solid stone and plaster and has only one access door, the roller shutter.So sealed on 3 sides.

    When I go into the garage you can definitely smell petrolly fumes, is this normal, are carbed bikes just fuel smelly ?? Its years since I've owned another bike and that one lived outside so I have nothing to gauge it on.

    I can see no leaks on the floor, or any wetness anywhere
    I have yet to take the fairings off, but is this is a known thing?
    apart from the carbs, petcock and the tank where else should I be looking?

    TIA
     
  2. squirrelman

    squirrelman Member

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    there are vents in the carbs and a vent in the petrol tank, so yes, some odor is normal. :rolleyes:

    try to find a way to ventilate the garage.
     
  3. ridervfr

    ridervfr Member

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    I had a similar situation with my 91 VFR, the fuel tubes were weeping. This goes back a long time ago, If you remove the mid fairing, you can get a nice flash light (maybe with a bendy arm?) and give a good inspection of the carburetors. You could have a leak there, or the petcock or the fuel fitler/pump.

    My situation went away when I rebuilt the carburetors on this bike, I do have another one of these bikes where I had a terrible leak (fuel tubes) and bought custom metal tubes off Ebay with Viton o-rings. I have an extra set for the bike I described above but have yet to use them. Maybe your fueling up with lousy gas, I don't know what kinda petrol you have over there, but I use an ethanol free gas (they add cheap alcohol based corn substitute to most of our gas which is bad on our carborated bikes.)
     
  4. Terry Smith

    Terry Smith Member

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    My VTR1000 smelled terrible when I first got it, and that turned out to be a combination of a failing vacuum petcock diaphragm and a bit of crud in one of the float needles, which allowed a bit of fuel to seep out of the carb overflow when parked up.
     
  5. VF1000Fe

    VF1000Fe New Member

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    Heat from the engine rises and warms the gas tank.
    The expanding fumes push out the Gas Cap Breather.
    Less gas in tank, the worse it is.
    Go in 30min after parking and listen to your gas cap, you'll hear the hissing.
    I hang a 6"/120V fan next to the motor and pull the heat out sideways, no gas smells.
    Warms the garage up faster too.
     
  6. ridervfr

    ridervfr Member

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    It vents through the key mechanism on the gas cap? On my Kawasaki I disassembled the key lock and removed the orange diaphragms and the whistling stopped when parked in my garage.
     
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