Strong Fuel smell inside....urgent help needed!!!

[Wayne]

Your saying it is drinking water, I would get that checked out 1st.

[gor131-x]

its ok at the moment,i think it needed topping up,ill check it again tomorrow

[Wayne]

its ok at the moment,i think it needed topping up,ill check it again tomorrow

Is the temp gauge working as it should now as well.

[gor131-x]

nope,still the same,ive changed teh coolant temp sensor,thermostat,i havent changed the temp sender which is in the radiator,does that have anything to do withthe temp needle?

[Wayne]

Sounds more like an air lock to me.

[gor131-x]

the top and bottom radiator hoses are both soft,is there anywhere else that i check for an airlock too?

[gor131-x]

right,£25 quid got me 102 miles and this was until the car literally ran out of petrol,i had a petrol can in the car with a couple of litres to get me to petrol pump.

i took the leads of the spare distributor i had and put them on the distributor on the car,it wouldnt even start so i put the original one back on,going to put the whole distributor on tomorrow,wouldve odne it today but weathers awful.

ive bought some new seats for my passat,didnt get round to fitting them,again,cos of the weather,once i do that,will go to halfords and get some spark plugs,see if that makes a difference

oh and its not drinking water,it just wasnt topped up to proper level at the garage.

apart from plugs and distributor,any other ideas as to the heavy fuel consumption?

[Gloves88]

Using that much fuel I would say can only really be one of two things: you've got a leak somewhere or you're running super rich.

Check your new plugs, if they're black already then its because its running very rich but really it sounds like you might have a leak somewhere.

Have you checked for leaks? I would start at the back of the car with the pump as mentioned previously, then work your way forward carefully checking all lines and connections.

[justalex81]

if he was running rich the lambda sensor would pick it up. i'd say leak somewhere

[gor131-x]

ive changed the spark plugs and wow were they black and sooted up.put the new ones in,started car,it gave ome black smoke and then went fine. i have worked out my average mpg to be 17mpg everytime ive topped up over the last 2 weeks.
the car is running better,still juddering a bit but much better than before.the temperature needle still at zero,only time itgoe sup is when im parked up for about 10 minutes,as soon as i start driving it will drop to zero,ive changed the thermostat and temp sensor,any ideas?

as for the strong fuel smell,ive been reading up on tinternet and as ive eliminated most of the common causes,the next step is to look at the fuel pump,it isnt a software problem as the diagnostic came up clear apart from the lambda which i replaced.
the fuel pump has an o ring which tends to go, causing fuel to escape to the outside of the tank,also been reading up about a fuel hose going to the fuel rail which can get corroded(do i have a fuel rail?) didnt understand that if anyone could elaborate

i think the fuel system is leaking but just got to figure out where from,any ideas as to how to check apart from with a lighter