visiongt9506
Member
- :
- 2002 protege5
this happend to me last month, i started smelling gas and then noticed it was dripping off my gastank and took a peak at the pump and well yep you know what i seen lol
Has Anyone Had Their Fuel Pump/Cover Leak?
- Thread starter mtnbiker26
- Start date
mtnbiker26
Bike Geek
Yeah, mine was pretty gross too. Try using a wire brush and Shop-Vac to remove the loose stuff. I had lots of accumulated sand like you do.
Awesome thread. Had the same issue and followed all the advice listed. I'm not a "car guy" at all and fixed this issue on my sons car for under $100 (new plate, fuel body, gasket, screen, screws, PB, wire brushes, grip-it kit, fuel line disconnect tool). I had a problem with two screws that were stuck pretty hard. I used the "grip-it screw extractor and they came out in under 5 seconds (soaked in PB overnight). The fuel line disconnect tool that I got from Autozone ($8) didn't seem to fit very well and it ended up breaking. The screwdriver method is what finally paid off for me. Good luck to anybody else that tries to do this. It's a fairly simple process for a novice once you get the courage to try it. Thanks to the OP and all other contributors.
CheeseHelmet
Member
Pull up the back seats, underneath there's a flap of material that pulls back and then you'll see the first metal cover. That first cover should come off easily, underneath that you'll see the top of the gas tank.
mtnbiker26
Bike Geek
Just want to add that the rear seat cushions have small pull tabs on the front-outside edges. Give the tab a sharp upward pull and the seat bottom will lift up and rotate forward on hinges. I believe there are instructions in the owners manual as well.
- :
- 92 & 16 Meyatas
well it looks like i'll be doing this repair as well...i don't have any fuel smell in the car, just outside and ut stinks up my garage! just hoping to get by till march so i can start using the msm and take this car off the road for the repairs
carrotsnax
Member
- :
- 91 miata le, 02 P5
I also need to do this, did any of you happen to get any codes while this was leaking fuel? Mine started smelling like gas several months ago and ignored it and just remembered it is single-handly the worst designed car ever, so I paid no attention.
Protege5 is the worst designed car ever?
mtnbiker26
Bike Geek
I don't know if the leaking fuel pump will trigger the check engine light...My CEL never lit when my pump was leaking. Is it possible that the leak could case the same pressure loss symptoms as a loose fuel filler cap? I know a loose cap can trigger the CEL.
My 03 has 117,000 miles on it and it had it's first ever CEL a few months back. Advance did the OBD scan for free and the code was P0300 "random cylinder misfire". A search on here indicated that coils are prone to failing around that age so I changed them and the problem is solved.
My 03 has 117,000 miles on it and it had it's first ever CEL a few months back. Advance did the OBD scan for free and the code was P0300 "random cylinder misfire". A search on here indicated that coils are prone to failing around that age so I changed them and the problem is solved.
carrotsnax
Member
- :
- 91 miata le, 02 P5
That is the same code my car is throwing although it has become very intermittent. I have new plugs, wires, and coils and my car has 95,000 miles on it. I am going to guess that its my egr valve. Btw Thanks for putting this thread together with the information that you have collected. I will be doing the dance with my fuel pump in the next weekend or so.
- :
- 92 & 16 Meyatas
i have 158k on mine and it's not throwing a cel, but the gas tank is "seeping" at the pump too...i'm hoping to make it to the end of next month when i take her off the road for the summer...i'll mess with it then
I also have this problem... at first I thought the leaking was the tank itself, but I got my cousin to take a look at it (Mazda employee that did mechanic and now he's the parts manager) and he told me about this well known issue of the gas pump housing leaking from the top... so he removed the back seat, removed the first metal cover and then discovered that the top metal ring screws were badddddllyyyyy damaged by corrosion. He tried 1 or 2 tools to remove the screws, but they are so badly corroded that they fall apart like dirt... when all the rusted metal is gone, there's only a little bit of good metal left, look slike not enough to do anything to unscrew them. My cousin told me that all the case they resolved at Mazda weren't THAT corroded, he never saw that much rust there.
The only thing I would try would be to make a slit in the head of the screw (if enough metal, I can't remember now) and remove it with a flat screwdriver.
We also checked if the gas tank would be removable, in order to change the whole tank/pump assembly but when he tried to remove the big bolts (6 or 7) under the car, they too were too much rusted, he tried hard to remove one nut, but he felt like they would snap. 3 or 4 of them never moved a mm, 2 or 3 of them moved but were very hard to unscrew. Plus, many lines were in the way of the tank and those lines looks bad and would snap under any bad/medium pressure, so they would have to be disconnected, maybe breaking when disconnecting... so removing the tank for another one from the scrapyard isn't really an option.
I would try again to remove those screws, but in the case it fails because not enough metal is sticking out, does anyone of you think I can drill through them? I would of course take/pump the gas out of the tank first and clean the top with water and maybe even have water flowing on the top while drilling...
Or I even thought maybe popping/sawing the heads off so the cover can be removable and then working on removing the screws stud out of there...
I am very discouraged with this issue. The car is getting old and has a lot of mileage on it (215,000ish km, most of it on highways), but the engine is running very well, had the coils replaced, new brakes... I would like to keep the car but it is wasting way too much gas now... I barely make 300km on a tank while I was doing 500+ per tank... plus the smell is awful.
I put some "dumdum" (black tacky thing) around the edge of the first black metal cover so the fumes would mostly stay outside and up until now, it worked pretty well.
But now this has to be fixed, or I might need to replace the car and put this one down to the scrapyard... which is a shame because the engine is running very well.
I could post some pictures of the state of the rusted metal cover when I'll be able, so it helps you visually.
Thanks for any help anyone can provide, I think my case might be the worst in this thread... it probably looks even worst than "Astral" in page 4... sadly... :'''(
At least, I can see the white of the top of the housing, it's not that dirty, but very corroded.
The only thing I would try would be to make a slit in the head of the screw (if enough metal, I can't remember now) and remove it with a flat screwdriver.
We also checked if the gas tank would be removable, in order to change the whole tank/pump assembly but when he tried to remove the big bolts (6 or 7) under the car, they too were too much rusted, he tried hard to remove one nut, but he felt like they would snap. 3 or 4 of them never moved a mm, 2 or 3 of them moved but were very hard to unscrew. Plus, many lines were in the way of the tank and those lines looks bad and would snap under any bad/medium pressure, so they would have to be disconnected, maybe breaking when disconnecting... so removing the tank for another one from the scrapyard isn't really an option.
I would try again to remove those screws, but in the case it fails because not enough metal is sticking out, does anyone of you think I can drill through them? I would of course take/pump the gas out of the tank first and clean the top with water and maybe even have water flowing on the top while drilling...
Or I even thought maybe popping/sawing the heads off so the cover can be removable and then working on removing the screws stud out of there...
I am very discouraged with this issue. The car is getting old and has a lot of mileage on it (215,000ish km, most of it on highways), but the engine is running very well, had the coils replaced, new brakes... I would like to keep the car but it is wasting way too much gas now... I barely make 300km on a tank while I was doing 500+ per tank... plus the smell is awful.
I put some "dumdum" (black tacky thing) around the edge of the first black metal cover so the fumes would mostly stay outside and up until now, it worked pretty well.
But now this has to be fixed, or I might need to replace the car and put this one down to the scrapyard... which is a shame because the engine is running very well.
I could post some pictures of the state of the rusted metal cover when I'll be able, so it helps you visually.
Thanks for any help anyone can provide, I think my case might be the worst in this thread... it probably looks even worst than "Astral" in page 4... sadly... :'''(
At least, I can see the white of the top of the housing, it's not that dirty, but very corroded.
CheeseHelmet
Member
^Break all the bolts holding the tank in. Once the tank is out of the way it shouldn't be too hard to drill out all the broken bolts. If you make the holes big enough you can get away with using a nut and a bolt to hold the tank in using the original mounting points.
Of course this isn't the nicest solution, but it'll work...
Of course this isn't the nicest solution, but it'll work...
After asking several person, especially another Mazda mechanician, he told me to try punching the star shape in the screw to see if there's anything to grip on with the screwdriver, and if this doesn't work, just cut the screws with a cold chisel, remove the metal cover and then I'll have access to the remaining of the screws, which I probably could remove with a pair of vice-grip. Then, I buy what's needed to fix the problem (screws, cover, housing...etc.)
I won't be taking the tank off, first you really need a lift to do this, else it would a pain in the arse, then like I already said, many of the brake lines would probably break by trying to disconnect them... and if we try to lower the tank without disconnecting the lines and just bend them to work around, they would also break. It's a very very big job to remove the tank, money and time wise. I prefer cutting/breaking small tiny screws rather than large big bolts that hold a 55-liters tank...
I will update this thread when the job will be done, with my results and appreciation of the technique used to remove the screws... this might be helpful to some others that have really damaged screws. (I think my screws have been corroded with time PLUS eaten out by the leaking gas...)
The mech who told me to chisel them off does side jobs at home but he doesn't touch anything gas-related for insurances purpose. I 100% get this!
I won't be taking the tank off, first you really need a lift to do this, else it would a pain in the arse, then like I already said, many of the brake lines would probably break by trying to disconnect them... and if we try to lower the tank without disconnecting the lines and just bend them to work around, they would also break. It's a very very big job to remove the tank, money and time wise. I prefer cutting/breaking small tiny screws rather than large big bolts that hold a 55-liters tank...
I will update this thread when the job will be done, with my results and appreciation of the technique used to remove the screws... this might be helpful to some others that have really damaged screws. (I think my screws have been corroded with time PLUS eaten out by the leaking gas...)
The mech who told me to chisel them off does side jobs at home but he doesn't touch anything gas-related for insurances purpose. I 100% get this!
MonkeyBone
Member
- :
- Silver 2007 6 Sport
I'm having the same problem here. Gas is pouring out on top of the pump assembly. Everything is rusted (that's new!..). I'll try to remove the screws next week-end and remove it to see where the leak is.
I probably will be buying another Protege of the same year instead of trying to fix this ugly mess... I found the same Protege, but with the electric group, a sun roof and a trunk spoiler. I'll make sure this car hasn't the gas leak problem, check if the screws are still nice and removeable (in case the problem reoccurs on this car too). What's interesting with buying the same car is that I still get the car I like and know, and I can swap parts before scrapping the current one. It'll save me on the junkyard if I need parts, I'll swap everything that I don't like on the new car and I'll still have a good car for some years. Plus, I already have tires mounted on rims for this car and a roof rack (Thule).
I'm just sick and tired of this ugly problem and gas smell... I lose at least 50% (and probably 65%) of the gas that goes through the pump...
I would have tried fixing the leaking problem with a cold chisel, but as soon I top off some screws, the car won't be able to leave the driveway where I'll do the job... but the thing is that I need the car, so it needs to be fixed right away without complications, which is mostly impossible! Nothing can go extremely well!
I'm just sick and tired of this ugly problem and gas smell... I lose at least 50% (and probably 65%) of the gas that goes through the pump...
I would have tried fixing the leaking problem with a cold chisel, but as soon I top off some screws, the car won't be able to leave the driveway where I'll do the job... but the thing is that I need the car, so it needs to be fixed right away without complications, which is mostly impossible! Nothing can go extremely well!
So I bought another Mazda Protege 2001 with no leaking problem. But I checked under the metal cover under the rear seat, and all the screws are badly corroded. They are as bad as the car I already own. At first, we thought the gas leaking made the screws even more damaged on the original car, but seeing how bad the screws are on the unleaking car, gas had probably nothing to do with it...
So I took the bargain to take the car and hope for the best regarding this fuel pump leaking problem. At least, the car's pretty clean and nothing major was to be done on the car. Valves seals are worn out and leak a but of oil in the cylinders, smoking white a little bit in the morning, and the rear top plates bushings are to be changed, though they also were on the original car. Everything else it swappable from one car to the other, so I'll have a Protege in pretty good shape when the swapping will be done.
So, a bit of advice: check your screws, and put something to protect them if they are still useable/unscrewable!
So I took the bargain to take the car and hope for the best regarding this fuel pump leaking problem. At least, the car's pretty clean and nothing major was to be done on the car. Valves seals are worn out and leak a but of oil in the cylinders, smoking white a little bit in the morning, and the rear top plates bushings are to be changed, though they also were on the original car. Everything else it swappable from one car to the other, so I'll have a Protege in pretty good shape when the swapping will be done.
So, a bit of advice: check your screws, and put something to protect them if they are still useable/unscrewable!
- :
- 92 & 16 Meyatas
fixed
So, a bit of advice: check your screws, and put something to protect them if they are still useable/screwable!
So, a bit of advice: check your screws, and put something to protect them if they are still useable/screwable!
