~~~ RESOLVED ~~~

Filled up my car today and came home, saw something leaking from the back of my car, and what do you know, it was a gas leak.

I did my best tracing it, seemed to be coming from the fuel pump.

Now, the pump works, that's one thing (otherwise I wouldn't have been able to drive it home), I could hear it work for 2-3 seconds before starting, But it's leaking. I'm only about 75% sure that it's not coming from the fuel lines.

Here's an animated .gif of it.


Before I recorded this, I soaked out any remaining leaked gas. As you can see, there's slight amount of bubbles coming from the fuel tank lock. The fuel starts to accumulate in the center then overflows to the outside, down the fuel pump, and onto the ground.

Tried tightening the lock, pretty much stayed the same.

Disconnected the battery, took out the fuel lines, disconnected the fuel pump connector wire, and removed the tank lock and inspected it. Did not look damaged at all, neither did the fuel lines.

Put it back together and tried priming it, slowly but surely it still did it the same way.

Now I'm worried about this because out of all the things I could think of doing,
it's either

1. replacing the tank lock cap
2. replace the fuel pump assembly
3. replace the entire thing (pump and assembly)
4. replace the fuel lines

Just wondering what you guys think I should do.

 

Woops. Spoke too soon.
Resolved the issue.

So I did mention I took off the lock, but I didn't actually take out the entire pump assembly itself. So I went back outside after posting this and did that, there was so much fuel that was close to overflowing. Had to take my drain pan because I just lost about 3 gallons of gas unfortunately.

Anyways, So I pulled it out, inspected it, and it seemed perfectly fine. So I thought maybe it somehow moved itself, or the lock actually wasn't tight enough at all.

Now, I put it all back, still losing petrol like crazy, and started turning the lock with a tool instead of using my arm strength. Tightened the hell outta it, and made sure it was very secure.

Plug back everything in, primed up the fuel system, looking good so far, turned the engine on, went back, still looked great. Few revs here and there and checkup, it was perfectly fine.

So I don't know how that happened, but it was loose I guess.
I was wondering all this time why my estimated mpg was 12.9, even though I haven't been driving it at all until last week since I got it back in November.

Tighten that lock if anyone stumbles upon this same problem. Tighten it good or you'll get that fuel leak like I did, guaranteed.

I don't know if I can request to lock this at all or anything. I'll just leave it up I guess.

 

If it starts leaking again, replace the seal.

 

seal fo shooo.. had this happen to mine and it still happens if i fill it too much lol. ordered a seal. you really gotta tighten her down after removing the pump. i used a bug monkey wrench and flathead screwdriver.

 

OP: there is supposed to be a rubber seal under that big ring nut; is yours missing?

 

Felt like the seal was there if I remember. I'll see if it'll start leaking again. Just came back home and no problems at all so far.