FormulaF

Hey everyone!

So, I'm fairly new to the forum and have lurked on here for years, especially during the month leading up to the purchase of my 08 ISF (which has now since been sold). However, I've now recently purchased an 01 IS300, Auto, lovely car in fairly decent shape but has been sitting idle for a few months in a rather humid underground parking garage.

Anyway, when purchased, the car had about 1/4 tank of gas, if that. I drove it home and when close to empty, I decided to pump my first full tank. After driving home for about 5 minutes and parking it, I smelt a strong odour of fuel. I didn't see any leaks or drips from underneath the car so I left it. However, Upon returning about 30 minutes later, I noticed a HUGE pool of fuel located just in front of the rear driver side tire towards the very side of the car (close to the rockers) and it was dripping quite badly.

I have no clue as to what the issue is, however, given how badly its leaking, I'm going to have the car towed away from our residential area to avoid any issues. Do you guys have any clue as to what this could be? I tried searching and couldn't find too much information on this here or on Google, however, based on a few pictures I've seen on Google, I believe its the fuel line, just by where the leak was. However, since the leak only happened after pumping up a full tank, I don't know if this is tank related or something else either related or completely different.

Can anyone help me out here and share your thoughts? Any information would be highly appreciated guys.

Thanks so much,

Cheers,

ISKorey

congrats on the purchase. it sounds like it could be a few things (i know thats not much help) did you happen to look under the car? chances are its not the tank itself but maybe a leak in the filler hose or breather for the tank. If you look on google images at the parts explosion (2001 lexus IS300 gas tank parts explosion) you can see only a few things are located on the driver side of the car looks like the filler hose and the fuel pump. Thats just my guess and hard to tell without seeing it.

ISKorey

I would check the fuel pump first as its much easier to get to. remove the back seats and its a few bolts.

bryceis250

would the gas drip be coming form the fuel pump only when its full? my problem is only when its full do i smell the gas strong. the leak wasnt there the first few ties i smelled gas after the fill ups.