Gas smell
 

this evening dropped down to -35 with wind chill. I went to start the car, which sounded like it had a bit of difficulty, it turned over with a heavy smell of fuel!

it was so bad, my passenger and I had to wait outside with the doors open.... has anyone had this happen to them?

Probably has to run super rich on cold start I'd say that's normal, unless it happens again in warm whether then it's an issue

i asked a mechanic friend who also said the same thing. The cylinders enrich so its an easy start. It makes sense because the start up did sound louder than usual! I hope you guys are right!

I was exiting a parking spot on the side of the street facing steeply downhill when I lurched a little bit, first backing up to make room, then pumping the brakes to ease my way out. I engine-braked about 100 feet downhill in first gear and just as I started to apply throttle, ... nothing. I clutched in and cranked the engine for a sec when I smelled the strongest smell of gasoline vapor that I've ever smelled inside a car. It was like "don't strike a match" strong.

I was sure I had some sort of a fuel issue but I got out of the car and checked under the hood to find a perfectly normal engine bay. No fuel anywhere.

I pulled the fuel pump fuse, had it trailered home, and checked the LPFP. (over the tank) It was also clean & dry.

Fire extinguisher by my side, I reinserted the fuse and turned on the ignition and listened for the pump to pressurize the fuel rail. No problem no leaks but it did throw a P0108 code.

I cleared the code and started the engine without any other issue.

It remains a mystery but the car is running fine. I theorize fuel may have somehow splashed in the evap control system but I have no idea how it ended up so strongly in the cabin.

I modified my tune so it would do quiet cold starts because my headers are cat less. When you have a stock tune it retards timing and does a lot of valve overlap with a lot of fuel dumped in specifically to get the catalytic converters warmed up not necessarily to get an easy start after the car turns over. The result is it's very loud startup even with the stock exhaust.

Interesting, with P0108 maybe a wiring fluke?

I have no idea. I'm tempted to go back to the same hill and try to reproduce the issue, only without the 2 hours waiting for a tow truck. :/