first car woes

A strong smell of petrol and pools of it underneath? You can put paper under the car to spot leaks in the tank or pipes, but the biggest clue is the smell.

If it seems to run ok then it either has a leak (not very common) or someone has siphoned some fuel out.

So look underneath for dripping fuel. If no leaks are apparent then drive it for a short distance and look again with the engine running.

An incredibly blocked air filter might cause a big loss in economy and is easy to check, just unscrew the black cover of the air filter (top of the engine, toward the back vaguely triangular with three crosshead screws) the air filter will probably be dusty, that is ok, if very black, full of leaves, dead animals etc. then replace it with a new one, they are quite cheap in any case.

Assuming there is no leak, fill it again and keep it safe while not in use.

You should get at least 200 miles to a tank and I usually get more from the exact same vehicle which I use as a general daily run about.

Mrcheerful

If you fill it up again now, how much fuel will it take? Could be a faulty guage or sender.

John

Seconded, first thing to try if no obvious fuel loss.

firstly thanks a lot for all the replies - appreciate that.

about the fuel tank this is where it gets interesting - if i fill the petrol tank up as far as it will go instead of the fuel pump automatically turning itself off (which i've heard it's sposed to do) the fuel starts gushing out the bottom of the wheel arch. i bent down and had a look under my rear right arch just under the fuel cap and noticed that a little hose (not the big fuel hose) had a gaping hole in it and for about 2 days later the car stank of petrol.

about the gauge, theres all sorts going on with that, if i put in 10 quid of petrol the guage will immediately go to full, then 10 mins later drop to about 3/4 then 10 mins later drop down to about half. from then on the descent will be slower, but its not long before im back filling up...jeez all sorts of problems from a first car, eh!

First thing to do is get that petrol leak fixed.

John

nick ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Ah... Just a little bit of information you forgot to mention, then...

And what do you think happens when you go round a corner and petrol get slooshed over to that side of the tank...?

It's a 15yr old Metro...

Get that fixed immediatly or make sure your insurance policy covers fire!

Warning - I half remember that in the early days of the Metros had a recall to do with the fuel cap. I think it was after several police cars crashed when petrol got on the wheels. Be very careful.

If fixing the fuel leak doesn't cure this then it could be a problem with the voltage regulator supplying the dashboard. Do any other instruments like the temperature work ok?

earlier 2 door metros had a very shallow filler pipe, if the cap was faulty or missing they swilled petrol out easily. Later ones and early four doors had a high level filler.

They only take about 30 litres in total, so they do seem to go down quickly.

Mrcheerful

Scrap the bugger...!

PDH

Yep, I remember that. West Mids Police IIRC, about 1984 or 5 ish.

Yep will do, but I didn't necessarily think it was a problem as the gaping hole is right at the top of the fuel pipe near the filler cap and thus if fuel was to spill out (which i don't think it does anyway) it would only spill out when I had so much petrol in the tank that it was coming near the top. Thing is drinks petrol hard even when i'm at

when you go round left handers the fuel will swill up the pipe, there is also plenty of room for massive evaporation