I have an odd problem with my S80. It's a 2.5 liter FWD. When the tank is around 3/4 tank and above, the car produces a strong fuel smell near the rear wheels. No messages in the display, no codes stored, and my average economy is 28mpg with no performance issues. I can't find any sign of fuel leaking anywhere, but obviously there is a vapor leak, at minimum.

There is a recall for my model year for faulty fuel pumps that have the same symptoms, and the recall is for vehicles registered in my state, but for some reason my car doesn't qualify for the recall. I did get a service voucher from VCNA though, so I'm probably going to have the dealer see what the issue is.

Before I venture in to the dealer with the car, any ideas about what this might be? I don't object to having someone work on the car, but I'm usually much more informed about problems before I let someone work on it. In this case, I tried to get the rear seat out to take a look, but failed miserably. It looked a lot easier in a diagram than it is in practicality.

Since I can't seem to extract the rear seat bottom, it's impossible for me to get inside the access panels and see for myself where the smell is originating. Anyone have any ideas or experience with this? Thanks.




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C Herbst
Phoenix, AZ
2005 Volvo S80 58k
2012 Subaru Forester 9k
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Phoenix, AZ; 2005 S80 2.5 55k; Many past 2/7/9 models to 300k; 2012 Subaru Forester 2.5x premium/all weather... 5k