The Dodge van seen in the photos above and below arrived at the shop for a fuel smell concern. The driver mentioned that he filled the van up with fuel recently and noticed a strong smell of gas for a brief period of time, after which it disappeared. I've seen a similar issue with the older Ford vans in our fleet. The rubber section of the fuel filler line dry rots and cracks after many years which results in a small fuel leak after the vehicle is filled with fuel. But the smell disappears after the vehicle is driven and the fuel level in the tank drops. Another possible cause would be an issue with the o-ring on the fuel pump assembly.

With the van in the air, I could see fluid residue on the exterior of the fuel tank.

The residue present gave me the indication that I was dealing with a problem on the top of the tank. That meant the tank had to come down for examination. I put the fuel tank jack under the tank and removed the straps only to find something unexpected.

This van recently had racks and shelves installed. Whoever did the install used those miserable self-tapping screws, (I hate those things !). If you look closely at the screw seen in the photo above, you will see a black substance on the screw that looks suspiciously like plastic, which is the same material the fuel tank is made from.

And that's exactly what happened. Whoever did the shelving install accidentally drilled through the top of the fuel tank. With enough fuel in the tank, it would splash about and leak out of the hole. But as the van was driven and the fuel level in the tank dropped, leakage was minimized.

Fuel tanks for work vehicles like trucks and vans can be somewhat tricky to order. The easiest way to ensure you are ordering the proper part is to get the part number off of the old tank.

And just to be safe, I took pics of all the other numbers stamped on the tank.

None of this mattered, however, because this tank had long been obsolete.

We ended up sending the tank out to be repaired.