Is it safe to drive a car leaking gas?
Driving with a gas leak is unsafe, as the fuel odor becomes strong enough to smell both inside and outside the vehicle from a distance. This safety risk leaves owners stranded when they need to get the car to a garage for an overhaul but face a long drive and cannot get a tow.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Having the vehicle towed to a repair shop instead of risking driving it.Did this help you?
- 2Calling the shop ahead of time to arrange a loaner car.Did this help you?
- 3Adding thicker weight oil to try and protect the engineDid this help you?
- 4Driving gently at low RPMs with a light gas pedalDid this help you?
- 5Adding heavy duty oil stabilizersDid this help you?
- 6Frequently checking and topping up the correct weight oil during the driveDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Hello, i have a Hyundai Santa fe and I noticed a really strong gasoline smell and i found out that my car leaks gasoline, I was wondering if I can drive it to the garage, is it safe?”source ↗
“I can smell it inside and also outside, its so strong i can smell it from a little far”source ↗
“I need to drive 120 miles and cant get the car towed”source ↗
“It will get a complete overhaul i just want to do as much as possible to make the 120 miles”source ↗
“Normal it just burns a lot of oil like 100oz every 200 miles”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 3Can I drive my car with a stolen catalytic converter?