Fuel in spare tire compartment in Equinox

[blakbearddelite]

We were driving home tonight in the Equinox and started smelling what initially smelled like WD40 in her car.

Once get got home, we tried finding out what it was. We opened the compartment with the spare tire and it had about one inch of gas sitting at the bottom. We have no idea how it happened. Has anyone ever heard of this happening before?

Here are a couple of pics:

Click to read more...

 

[Stink Star]

Those cars are notorious for leaks collecting in that area, but I've never seen gas there...... Doesn't really make sense at all

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

What the hell? Never heard of this but that must have smelled terrible and seems quite dangerous.

 

[blakbearddelite]

Yeah, we're having it towed to the dealership.

But think I might need to get the gas out of there. I'm afraid if they go to tow it, they're going to dump that fuel all over the back of the SUV.

 

[Shadow99]

Wtf, my dad has one, better tell him to check out his.

 

[firemandan1700]

My mom has one too. I'll have to tell her as well! Let us know what caused this.

 

[GTwolf]

It's just being a chevy, good idea having it towed to the dealer since you don't know exactly where the gas leak is.

 

[NetChemica]

It's just being a chevy, good idea having it towed to the dealer since you don't know exactly where the gas leak is.

 

[blakbearddelite]

My guess is that there is a hole in the line that goes from the fuel door to the fuel tank. So when she filled up her car on Friday night, some of it went through the opening and into the car somehow. I think the smell didn't get strong because it is a somewhat sealed compartment. It took about a day before the fumes built up.

I'm a little worried because my pregnant girlfriend and I were in the car for about forty minutes. I doubt that little exposure could be that serious.

I estimate that it was about 3-4 gallons of gas. I filled a 5 gallon gas can more than half way up.

We're hoping somehow the dealer will fix it for free since it is something so serious. If not, I'm going to get in touch with corporate and see what they say. Fuel in the inside the car is ridiculous and there should be now way of that happening.

 

[blakbearddelite]

It turns out that I can't smell the difference between stagnant water and gas. It ended up being water after all. The car smelled horribly, but the smell was not gas fumes.

They re-sealed the rear window and said that it should not leak any more water into the tire well. It's crazy how it had this chemical smell to it though.

Well, at least the dealership can say they had a customer that couldn't smell the difference between gasoline and water.

 

[Bru]

Yikes. Well at least it wasn't gasoline.

 

[blakbearddelite]

There was a bottle of Fix-A-Flat floating in the water, maybe some of that seeped and caused a smell.

But yeah, I'm glad to know we weren't inhaling gas fumes for almost an hour.

 

[Angus]

could just be the rubber from the spare in there or the glue on whatever the water may have gone through....

 

[Soulonfire11]

^I 2x that, the glue from the carpet or something, who knows.

 

[SaturdaysGS]

Fix a flat could cause the smell that shit had a chemical smell to it.

 

[blakbearddelite]

Needless to say, I was very embarrassed when I came back with a gas can full of water.

But I agree, any of those things might have given the water an odd smell.

 

[Stink Star]

Yea the sound deadening material inside that spare tire well is weird stuff and if soaked will seep out into the water making it cloudy. I've fixed probably about 5 equinoxes for this same problem. I hope they didn't just resell the hatch because the is a bulletin about taking off the rear bumper and using seam sealer on all the joints of the sheet metal in that area..... I've done that every time and have never had one come back

 

[blakbearddelite]

Yea the sound deadening material inside that spare tire well is weird stuff and if soaked will seep out into the water making it cloudy. I've fixed probably about 5 equinoxes for this same problem. I hope they didn't just resell the hatch because the is a bulletin about taking off the rear bumper and using seam sealer on all the joints of the sheet metal in that area..... I've done that every time and have never had one come back

I'm pretty sure that they just re-sealed the hatch. I'm not sure what our recourse would be. If it leaks again any time soon, we'll probably ask them to do it right. I'm not sure how much her bill is going to be or for what period of time the work is warranteed. I'm guessing they only cover it for 30 days.

 

[Stink Star]

GM dealer should be 12/12k