Alright so my 2nd gen has a problem. The other day, the entire cabin filled up with the smell of gas. After a couple minutes I realized it wasn't another car. I pulled over and saw no visible leaks, aired the car out, and finished my drive. Today, my husband took my car. I noticed an oil looking spot on the ground. I automatically reached down to swipe it and smell it as my daddy taught me. If smells like gas. I'm gonna check the oil in a couple minutes to see if it smells like gas, but any ideas? My husband's car is in the shop so I need a working car, but I'm not gonna drive it and potentially damage the engine or something. 2006 Prius 230k Coolant level, never have any issues. Has been burning some oil
Usually you get warning lights that store error codes before you have to worry about damaging the car... So I wouldn't be too concerned about this problem yet.
If there's gas in the oil, perhaps there's a fuel injector that doesn't quite seal off, and leaks some gas into the cylinder while the engine is stopped. Any weirdness when the engine starts up? I would change the oil kind of soon, as gasoline doesn't improve the lubrication. Then maybe see how long the oil takes to smell like gas again.
What happened before the car started smelling like gas? Had it just been filled up? Does it still smell like gas? Assuming the car has not again smelled like gas, consider the possibility that it was an external event. Like somebody spilled gas in the road and you drove through it. That sometimes happen when there has been a wreck and they don't clean up well after hauling the other cars away. A large gas spill can stink for a very long time. In my experience when there is a real issue with a fuel leak it will stink pretty much all the time, at least under the hood, and after the car has run for a while, so that the fuel pump was active. It is probably worth figuring out where the oil is dripping from, but it is likely that leak is completely unrelated.
