Hi All,

This has been a recurring problem which my mechanic tried to fix 2 times by now, and is looking at it again now. A little while ago a strong fuel smell appeared coming from underneath my 1999 V70 AWD Volvo rear r.h.s., and there were some noticeable fuel leaks (not big). I noticed that a few people on this Forum(s) experienced somewhat similar problems with their cars in the past. If you happen to know anything about this problem please let me know.

A few more comments: the worst part of this is that the mechanic was unable to determine the source of leak without taking off the entire fuel tank assembly (it's a 2-tank assembly, i am referring to the r.h.s. tank leaking). Apparently the leak was on one of the houses that are in between the top of the fuel tank and the bottom of the body (under the rear seat and trunk area) to which the tank is attached. The trouble is there seems to be no way to see the hoses jammed in between the tank and the floor, but the leaks do seem to come from that area, leaking on the rear side of the tank. So, as I was told, the whole thing had to be taken off, even just to find out the cause of the problem. And, along with it, some parts of the rear suspension and even the exhaust and rear differential. Since I didn't want to drive the car with fuel leaking (a major hazard, I'd think), I approved the repairs of that 8-hour job. It turned out to be some loose clamps that hold some of the hoses on the top of the tank. Fixed that, drove the car, had it for a day, no leaks, no smell, back to me. A few days later the problem occurred again. Now they found some more (or the same?) clamps loose, fixed that, seemingly OK again. Until - my most recent finding - the tank was filled. Right after that the leaks showed up again, and so did the smell. So it seems that something starts leaking fuel only at the point when the tank is full - a breathing hoose, a connection pipe from the fuel latch etc? BTW, no error codes were reported by OBDII.

I found out there were no official Volvo recalls on this, even though a couple of service bulletins was issued a while ago that seem to do with the fuel tank (couldn't download them from nhtsa.org website for whatever reason). Volvo claims there's no officially recognized problem, and advises the car to be repaired at the dealer, again at my expense.

As frustrating as this can be, with just 3 year old car and about 52K miles (of course this started happening shortly after warranty was over), I do hope the true cause can be found and fixed. But I also hope that Volvo can be held responsible for such an abnormal occurrence, such as a routinely leaking fuel tank on still a relatively new car, which, as most of us still believe probably, is considered (one of) the most reliable.

I will appreciate any feedback on this, thank you in advance.

Anton K.

1999 V70 AWD