rick10

hey guys i kind of need some help here

I just ran into some problems with my civic ( after 2 years without major issues) , when i turn the fan on the air comming out smells like fuel , it does it in cold air , ac and hot air. However i just noticed that if i turn the fan on and also press the circulate air button on (the one beside the AC ) the air comming out does not smell like fuel , it smells normal.

Anyone ran into this problem before?? some input?? I m takin ght e car to the mechanic but my mechanic decided to open wednesday so i m wondering if anyone can help

I guess i can still use the ac (weather is hot!!) if i turn the circulate air button on however I am still worry that it smells like full if i just turn the fan on without the circulating air button on

thanks

electronblue

iTrader: (1)

Are you sure it is a fuel smell?

What year is your car? Is your car stock?

There has been problems with cracked exhaust manifolds with Civics.

BWek

You must have a fuel leak under the hood check your injectors hose and filter these are the only things that would smell like gas

rick10

thanks for the responses . The car is a 2000 honda civic se. It is not stock , they change a few thinks in the car when i bought it . It has an air intake and maybe some other little changes. To tell you the true i never sat with someone that knows about mods to tell me what also it has. I m almost 80% sure it smells like gas . I thought it may be the heating core
however why would the smell go away if i turn on the circulating air button.

I m leaning more toward a cracked or leak somewhere , I would let you guys know this week after i take in the mechanic , I am just hoping it is not the heating core because i had to change that in my jetta before and it cost me 600$ to do it ( 1200 at the dealer !!)

Cynikal.Mindset

gotta be the fuel filter or injectors, o-rings and/or line(s) may have come loose or cracked

bbarbulo

iTrader: (2)

it's not the heater core, there is no fuel anywhere close to the heater core... only coolant. like others said, leak somewhere and the smell is getting blown in through the cowl

BWek

the smell goes away because it's recirculating the air in the cabin

rick10

ok guys i got some news .

Good news

I found what the problem was, it turns out the oil cap came off , therefore the smoked was actually oil , I found the oil cap under the hood and put it back which fixed the problem.

bad news

Just when i thought my problems were fixed , i drove to toronto and left my car in the parking lot for about 2 hours . I went to start my car and i see this white smoke comming from under the hood and also comming from the air fan .However it was very hard to see it , i thought it may be the rain (water boiling with the heat on the engine) but after driving my car for 3 minutes the smoked went away ,however my battery light went on. I was able to drive home (mississauga) and the battery light went off after 4 minutes , however i restarted my car again and the light came back on (it may go away after 5 min again , who knows).

I did some research and it turns on my alternator may not be charging my battery or there may be something loose in my alternator.

Any help???

I m thinking some oil may of spill close to my alternator and may of mess up some wires there , i m going to take at look at it tomorrow but any input is welcome!!

rick10

update

so today i tested the alternator and it turns out I have a faulty alternator. I did the old take the negative out of the battery and see if the car is still on and as soon as i took it off the car died. However when i keep the car in high rpms and took th enegative out the car still ran. The battery lights seems to go off when i m driving in high revs. However in my way home the light just came on and never went out so i guess i m running only with the baterry for now.

It may be the diode in the alternator that went wrong but its too much work to take it apart. Do you guys now how much would it cost me to change the alternator?.

chris_v2

man DO NOT i repeat DO NOT under any circumstance remove the negative terminal while the car is running. **** this is why I hate when backyarders bring their cars to me.

Your battery controls voltage spikes.. if you had a voltage spike you could of blown everything electronic in your car.

zeeman

iTrader: (1)

ya, why would you take the negative terminal off the battery with the car running? Thats asking for trouble.

There are better ways to test the alternator.

rick10

yea i know the risk. But seen it done it so many times and never heard of that actually happening.

You guys are right though , and i heard of thatbut i guess until it happens to you , you ll never learn. Anyhow the radio is working and so are the lights. I dropped my car in the shop , I m just wondering how much it would cost me to change the alternator and if i should get anything else done in my car that is close to the alternator ( battery, pullies , something close to the alternator that may be worth doing since the alternator is out already?)

chris_v2

The shop will take care of everything that is needed.

Alternator is about a 300-400$ job. Give or take. I guess it depends how much they charge for an AVR test and install. I believe install is around .8 or 1.2, I forget. Usually an avr test is 0.4-0.6 And alternator is about 200 and change.

rick10

then i guess i got a good price. 220 for the alternator and job. thanks anyways