Many thoughts flow through your mind when your lawnmower is leaking gas. One is that such a situation is dangerous and needs immediate fixes.
If you are making the rounds over your yard with your lawnmower, the engine and some parts will get hot. Add a leaking gas from the air filter, which could degenerate further.
If that’s the case with your lawnmower, it’s best to address the problem immediately. Thankfully, this article provides solutions to combat different scenarios of lawnmower gas leaking from the air filter. Read on to see what works!
You will find the gas tap between the carburetor and the gas tank. When you turn it off, it will stop gas flow between the tank and the carburetor.
These parts are primarily made of plastic components. That’s why, over time, they deteriorate and eventually stop working. As a result, you will have a leaking gas faucet on your hands.
2. Choking Obstruction
The choke on your lawnmower body enriches the gas and air vapor, allowing the cold mower to start. If the choke gets obstructed, the cooling function will be compromised. That can lead to leaking gas from your mower’s air filter.
How to Fix
When the choke on your mower is obstructed, you will have issues starting it. Since the choke enriches gas and vapor to help start the mower, you can remove the choke-hold or get a new one. That way, the cooling function does not get compromised.
3. A Degrading Floating Needle
When there’s a worn or tired floating needle in the carburetor, it can cause this issue. The carburetor’s fuel supply includes a fuel bowl, float, and needle. The float is attached to a needle via a rubber tip.
In addition, the float raises the needle when the fuel level rises. As a result, the needle opposite the fuel supply port gets shut as the fuel bowl fills up. When this rubber needle seal deteriorates, the carburetor often fails.
Fuel keeps filling the carburetor and finally extends into—the housing for the air filter. The air filter is flooded and degrades, causing the needle’s seal-tipped tip to become pink. On some engines, the seal is included in the carburetor needle seat.
How to Fix
Fixing the worn floating needle in the carburetor is easy, and the best part? You will know it needs fixing or replacement with signs of it wearing out. If that’s the case, you can replace only the seal. However, experts mostly recommend replacing the whole thing.
Replacing the whole carburetor is somewhat inexpensive, thanks to accessible parts. Note the following when fixing this issue:
Observe when the needle is down. That’s because the gas should continue to flow if the float shows a dropped position.
Observe when the needle is up. When you remove the fuel bowl and raise the float, the gas should stop flowing, allowing you to examine the float and needle. If it doesn’t, replace the needle, seal, or carburetor.
What is the choke type on the lawnmower? You should know this because the mower will flood with gas if a choke plate is stuck. So, don’t rev the engine because it will worsen the problem. Besides, choke cables occasionally require adjustments, but dealing with that is straightforward.
As the engine heats up, a thermostat near the muffler slowly opens the choke plate. With that, there’s no need to fiddle with the choke levers or priming bulbs.
If your choke fails to open when the engine is heating, the engine may flood with gas because the thermostat might malfunction occasionally.
4. Deteriorating Carburetor Gas Bowl Seal
The carburetor bowl seal often gets installed in the middle of the carburetor bowl inside the carburetor. If the nut holding the bowl is too tight or the seal is incorrectly installed, fuel will leak out.
The rubber eventually fails because, with time, it naturally deteriorates. For this reason, any fuel will go into the air filter, becoming saturated and leaving on the floor. You can expect this to happen with the filter attached to the carburetor.
How to Fix
You can deal with the gas bowl by fixing it when it malfunctions. All carburetors come with a fuel bowl, where the fuel passes into the carburetor. Also, or is from here, the jet sucks the gas to feed the engine.
The bowl is in a bowl-like shape at the back of the air filter. Most times, a single bolt secures the bowl to the carburetor. The bowl-holding bolt and the gasoline bowl often have seals made of big rubber O-rings.
Further, the seals can squeeze when the fuel bowl is reinstalled and degrade over time. Both can also leak when they’re tightened or distorted. What you can do is reset the gas bowl. However, it would be best to take special care while resetting the gas bowl.
How to Fix Fuel Leaks From Mower Air Filters
By now, you know that gas streaming out of your mower’s air filter is a serious problem you must attend to before it becomes a bigger problem. Ensure you have the correct tools as well before fixing any problems.
A screwdriver or nut driver to remove the engine house is vital, while you’ll also need pliers to clamp and the gasoline line’s squeeze clamps. These tools are necessary if you must handle the operation yourself. However, when things are too complicated for you, contact professional help.
The following steps will help you:
1. Tip your mower over correctly
Ensure the handlebars are pointing down. When you tip the mower over with a handlebar, you can have many issues. But sometimes, it is impossible to do. That leads to the next step.
2. Using the carburetor location
Typically, you will find the carburetor on the opposite side of the muffler. You will find an air filter cover primarily rectangular or square-shaped. Also, it is made of plastic. No wonder you have to replace it when it’s affected by an issue.
3. Kill the Engine
Regardless of the issue you want to fix, it would be best to observe some safety precautions. One of them is switching off the mower’s engine.
When you turn around the mower, the carburetor side is up, and not all lawnmowers have a gas valve. Sometimes, wrongly tilting the mower is not the only reason behind the gas coming out of the lawnmower’s air filter. But it remains one of them.
Final Words
In some cases, the reasons why gas leaks from the air filter in your mower can be a little issue, like incorrectly tilting the mower to its side. Also, the carburetor might have issues that need immediate attention.
Whatever the case, it’s essential to prevent serious problems, such as the gas combing with oil in the piston chamber. That will dilute the oil and make it less potent at what it does.
Further, there could be a fire outbreak when oil and gas mix. Other than that, a leaking gas faucet, limited choke, and bad floating needle are responsible for your mower leaking gas from the air filter.
Now that you know these problems and the possible solutions, follow the instructions to keep your mower in the ideal condition. One way to do that is to perform routine maintenance to avoid leaks.
Alex is a skilled gardener and lawn care expert with over 5 years of experience in the field. He developed a passion for horticulture at a young age and has since dedicated his life to mastering the art of landscaping. When he's not tending to gardens and lawns, Alex enjoys hiking, camping, and spending time with his family.
