I have an 04 Mazda 6 and it has been in and out of the shop for its check engine light with an evap code. We’ve replaced the gas cap, run a smoke test, replaced the purge valve, and the vapor valve. Since the idiots in East Tennessee don’t do inspections, it wasn’t a terribly big deal, except my car smells like gas. Could it be TN is poisoning my car? I never had this problem until I moved here. Doesn’t seem to matter which gas station I go to, or how many time I click the gas cap closed. It stops smelling like gas when I’m just under a quarter of a tank left, and smells worse when I change speeds rapidly, either accelerating or decelerating. Any ideas?
I don’t think the state of Tennessee is poisoning your car. Maybe there is a loose nut behind the steering wheel.
Just kidding. Take your car to an auto parts store which will scan your car’s computer codes for free and post them back here. It sounds like the shop you are taking your car to is 100% incompetent. Which national tire chain is it?
You may have a leak in the fuel (not evap) system, maybe a fitting is leaking or something is corroded. Did this car ever see snow/salt? A good shop should be able to track down a gas leak.
Who ran the smoke test? That should have found the leak…
I’m assuming you are still getting the thrown code. If so, my guess would be a leak or disconnection in one of the vent lines. You’d think a smoke test would discover this though. I guess still the first thing I’d do is do a visible check of all the venting lines and see if anything looks amiss.
If the code is cleared an not coming back, my guess would then be that in fixing the stuff you fixed, the shop probably accidently loosened a fuel line somewhere.
In any event, be sure to take the necessary safety precautions needed for gasoline leaks until you get this fixed.
There are many EVAP system fault codes, do you know which one you have? If you’re smelling fuel you obviously have a leak somewhere, and by your description it sounds like it’s around the gas tank area. If it’s bad enough to smell it shouldn’t be that hard to find for a competent mechanic with the right equipment.
BTW, Mazda and Ford have been making cars together for over 20 years, and Ford EVAP systems are among the simplest and easiest to repair out there.
Which engine do you have? 3.0L or 2.3L?