When I bought the car, it had a quarter tank of gas and gave me no problems on the drive home. When I filled it up for the first time, I noticed a strong gas smell and come to find the car is leaking gas under the car. At this point the gas gauge is working fine and things are well except for the leak.
A couple of days ago, I put the car up on ramps and notice this:
At this point I'm assuming it's only a problem when the car is full. Maybe figure if I wait til it goes down to half or less I could buy myself some time to do some research and figure out my options.
Today, however, I notice that the leak has slowed, if not stopped entirely. I'm guessing the gas levels got below the actual leak point. The problem is, the gas gauge has completely died now. As soon as I began to drive the car it has gone down to below E. My questions are as follows:
-Given the nature of the leaks, is a new gas tank necessary? (If so what are my WRX options: http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=52908)
-Judging from the pictures, could my leaks be coming from else where?
-Does the leak have anything to do with the gas gauge dying entirely?
I'm kind of in the dark here. I'm trying to find the cheapest alternative to get this fixed. Can anyone recommend a course of action? So far, car-part.com has some FWD gas tanks available that could be a direct swap (if the tank needs to be replaced). I'm also looking into WRX tanks for an eventual AWD swap in the future. I've found one locally for $100 but I'm wondering how difficult it would be and what sort of instructions I'd need to give my mechanic.
If anyone is local to the North Jersey area and could help me out, I'd really, really appreciate it. Thanks in advance for all of your help and I apologize for the double posts. This one is more of a general one whereas my other one is strictly asking about the WRX options.
Regards,
Nick
