I've been reading here on the fuel smell in the boot. But my car has a rather strong fuel smell in the cabin and a little bit in the boot. So I'm looking for the problem in the trunk first as everyone has suggested. My car is a '88XJS, VIN # 143089. I'm not quite sure if any of the locations of these fuel related components were changed between early '88 and late '88, before the '89 models were produced. I see references to changes made in '88, .....manuals that cover up to '88 (through '88?), manuals that say they cover '88 to '93, etc. so what the heck happened in '88. Looks like I'm stuck in the middle. So where are the components I need to look for in my '88, namely the fuel vent and hoses?

When I open the fuel cap to refill I get a pretty strong pressure release as I open it, definitely more than I would suspect. Guess that is a good indicator but I'm not sure how much pressure is normal, since it is a closed system.

 

The smell you are getting in the cabin is likely coming from your vapor recovery system in the front fender. I had the same thing happen on my '88 and the malfunctioning vapor recovery system is why you are getting a lot of pressure in the cap. This should be remedied because it can cause a stall in traffic or hard starting.

I didn't have time to fool with it, so I drill a hole in my cap. Other people have said they did this without issue, but I cannot fill my tank past halfway or so or the gas will spill in sharp turns.

I've heard the XJ6 has a valve in the vapor recovery system that becomes blocked and people just drill it out, but I'm not sure if the XJS uses it. Obviously I've been lazy and haven't diagnosed my system yet, so I'm not sure if I can point you to the most probable cause. I believe if you find a diagram the system is actually pretty simple and you should be able to trace the block relatively easy.

 

Thanks for the info. I was thinking that the vapor recovery system was in the boot. If it's under the bonnet then I should be able to see it in the fender. Is it the right or left fender? I probably need to find a pix of it so I can see what I'm looking for.

 

Should be on the (US) driver side

 

Its not under the bonnet, its in the fender in front of the wheel. You have to pull the plastic splash guard for access.

 

This is way to interesting! Now I know why I was dreading the answer. You all have saved me lots of pulling apart stuff looking for the widget that didn't exist where I was looking. If it's under the front left wing in front of the tire then It's probably a tight quarters bear to get at but at least it's not a waste of time. I'll get it solved. .......thanks to all for the info. ............Mike

 

This might help. Or not. I recall the evap system on my '88 XJS being a lot more complicated

https://www.jaguarclassicparts.com/u...tre-canada-usa

Cheers
DD

 

That's a cool site with really good info, especially if you don't have the catalog. Thanks for the tip! I printed it out for future reference. ............... thanks to everyone for your wisdom on this subject. ............