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Fuel odor after shut down

so cal hoss

so cal hoss

Member
Occasionally after a long ride and shutting my bike off in the garage a strong gas odor comes off the bike. I'm wondering if there's a check valve in the vapor recovery system or another place to look. Anybody have this issue or ideas where the strong gas odor could be coming from?
 
I get fuel odor after shutdown but mainly because my bike runs more on the rich side rather than lean by my decision to program the PCV that way.

What fueler are you running (assuming your are)and is it running more on the rich side versus lean? Could be as simple as readjusting your fuel mixture to reduce the fuel smell unless you have a leak somewhere causing the odor.
 
Yes, The bike has the California Emision package and I run a TFI but if it was a rich condition you would think that the strong odor of gas would happen everytime I shut the bike down. This seems to be a sporatic problem. Today after a long ride (sorry east coast riders) no odor but after last Sunday's ride the strong gas smell was really strong. At first I thought I had fuel leaking somewhere but that's not the case..
 
Is it possible after the rides that you smell the fumes that you ran the bike at low rpms or at idle longer than the times you do not smell the fumes before shutting the bike down? Maybe you were caught at an intersection, let the bike sit and idle, etc. immediatley before shutdown of the engine. Most fueler settings will have the fuel running richer at or near idle more so than at cruising speed and could be the cause of excess fumes at sporatic times.

I have no experience with the California Emmisions Package to offer any suggestions in that area.
 
TripleJ said:
Is it possible after the rides that you smell the fumes that you ran the bike at low rpms or at idle longer than the times you do not smell the fumes before shutting the bike down? Maybe you were caught at an intersection, let the bike sit and idle, etc. immediatley before shutdown of the engine. Most fueler settings will have the fuel running richer at or near idle more so than at cruising speed and could be the cause of excess fumes at sporatic times.

I have no experience with the California Emmisions Package to offer any suggestions in that area.
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I had to ask about the Cali package. Part of it is a vapor recovery unit. The vapor that is recovered is unburnt fuel. Going back to what you said, if there is excessive periods of idling, and possible that it is a bit rich on the lower end, well there would be an excessive accumulation of unburnt fuel vapor. So many variables but leaning it out at the lower end is POSSIBLE, but not for sure.
 
ultra...good said:
I had to ask about the Cali package. Part of it is a vapor recovery unit. The vapor that is recovered is unburnt fuel. Going back to what you said, if there is excessive periods of idling, and possible that it is a bit rich on the lower end, well there would be an excessive accumulation of unburnt fuel vapor. So many variables but leaning it out at the lower end is POSSIBLE, but not for sure.
Click to expand...

+1

I've heard of this same problem on other forums with similar solutions.
 
I had that when I first bought my bike in '09. Sometimes I would smell gas and sometimes I would not when parked in the garage. For me it turned out to be the seal on the tank cap. The over-spray from the paint/clearcoat prevented a good seal only in one small area of the seal. If I pressed down on the cap when I tighten it, it would seal. If I just tighten the cap until it ratchets, it would not seal. Just depended on what I did after buying fuel. I finally cleaned up the thick overspray of clearcoat and all was well after that.

Remove the cap and closely look at where the cap seal mates with the tank. There should be no paint on the metal portion of the tank where the seal is made. Tank paint is very thick! :)
 
Thanks, I'll check the flange! I talked with a service advisor this morning and apparently I'm not the only one with this problem. They seem to think it's related to the emission charcoal canister only able to handle a stock configuration. Adding a stage 1 with a fueler adds to the vapor problem. He suggested unscrewing the gas cap to ventilate the bike before parking it in the garage.
 
I purchased a used 2010 Ultra with a stage II kit with cams. Every time I ride the bike and park it in the garage it fills the garage with strong gas fumes. The smell stays in the garage over night but dissapates by the next day. I've called harley and gotten a factory service number for the problem but two different dealers can't figure out the problem. The standard answer is that I'm the only one with the problem. I think there is a design issue here and the factory is just waiting for the bike to go out of warranty and then I'll go away as well. One of the suggestions was to have it dyno tuned. OK well I purchased the tuner, paid for the dyno, $600 or so, and I still have the fuel smell. I suppose I'll have to tear into this myself. I don't want to since I think it's a Harley issue. If I'm the only one with the problem then they should be able to find the problem and fix it. Also, after have the dyno done I now get 23-27 mpg. The bike runs strong but my 8,000 lb duramax get 20 mpg. Has anyone been able to actually solve this (fuel vapor smell at shutdown)?
 
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