Last night I took the subaru out for a drive and for the first 5 minutes or so there was a strong smell of fuel coming through the heating vents. It was about 3c outside so I had the hvac cranked up. After a while the smell disappeared however upon getting home I was concerned so I looked it up and apparently this is a known issue with one of the fuel lines leaking in cold weather. I went out this morning for a look around the engine I could smell fuel residue on my fingers after poking around near the turbo inlet.
Has anyone else had this issue? If so how did you resolve it?
I'm very nervous to even start the car right now as the area that seems to be leaking is dangerously close to the engine block and turbo.

 

I've had this happen on my bugeye but it was only a tiny leak when we had that really really cold winter a few years back. It's never happened again. I'm guessing it hasn't been cold enough to cause it again. Is yours definitely leaking due to the cold or could it be an old or damaged pipe that you've just noticed.

 

I had this on my bug comman problem summot to do with the fuel line leaking fuel vapour was a recall i got mine fixed by subaru for free due to it not being done before was really good of subaru uk to honour the recall not sure if it could be a similar issue with the blob

 

Well this is the first time I have encountered the smell and yesterday was also the coldest night I've driven the Subaru in. Once the car was warm the smell subsided.

 

I did give my local Subaru dealer a call and they advised that there were no outstanding recalls for my car. I read online that the recalls were only applicable to 02-03 imprezas.

 

My 98 car got so bad it made my eyes water.
On arriving home from a short run, I found that the fuel line running across the bulkhead had split and was PISSING fuel all over the exhaust and turbo

Switched it off, expecting it to burst into flames and it didn't.

I replaced the fuel lines...all of the flexible ones, with some proper stuff and new stainless clamps.