Heard a sound like crumpling a plastic bottle, then a major fuel leak from bell....

Truck is a '96 K2500 4x4 auto trans, last fuel filter service about 3 months/6000 miles ago. Other than MPGs being a bit low (have been averaging 13.5-14mpg since I bought the truck), seems to have been running fine.

Went from the house to the gas station last night, and about 1/4 mile from the gas station I heard a loud sound under the truck, like when you crumple up a plastic water bottle. Figured I ran something over like a large bottle or can, and didn't think anything of it.

5 mins in the gas station, come back out, and see a puddle under the truck, still dripping. Was clear, oily, and smelled faintly like diesel, dripping from the bell housing and around the starter. A few minutes later it stops dripping, and I can't find evidence of anything leaking from the engine bay, though it was dark out, and I only had a cell phone as a flashlight. Left a couple pints on the ground.

Starts right up, drove it home a few miles without issue. Drove it 50 miles to work this morning, and it wasn't dripping at all when I got here, though it did sputter a bit when I first started it, kind of like maybe some air got in the fuel system.

I've been reading threads about fuel lines leaking in/around the valley, and a drain hole up there, and to check all the fuel lines/injector lines/return lines for leaks. Was going to tear in to it this weekend, but I keep thinking about that plastic crumpling noise, wondering if it might point to something, or just an odd coincidence? Looks like we're gonna get hammered with rain the next few days, and I'm not putting my crawler outside to get soaked, so fingers crossed I don't have a catastrophic failure before then, lol.

If nothing further is leaking, is it possible you hit something that coated the underside enough to be "leaking" at the gas station? With no further problems and no more "leaking" I'd question that you actually sprung a leak.

Well, sure...anything's possible, lol. The thought did occur to me, it just seemed awfully unlikely that I could nail a large enough container of something that would pop, and send enough liquid up on to the engine area that would still be dripping a significant amount of liquid after a 1/4 mile of airflow under the truck and sitting for 10 minutes without feeling the impact, or covering a much larger section under the truck?

Though, if it was something like just water (at least that's what I'm hoping...that corridor is an awfully popular dumping ground for trucker bombs too....), that would explain why the drips smelled faintly like diesel, as opposed to a full strength fuel stink from a raw fuel leak.

I just didn't know if there was some kind of pressure relief valve or some other unknown wonkyness up in there that I didn't know about, and I figured better safe than wondering just WTF am I gonna do now when the truck dies in the middle of nowhere and 100 miles from the nearest cell phone tower, lol.

Usually when you have enough to create a puddle and show visible drips it becomes pretty clear what is leaking - as in, something ends up empty before it stops creating a puddle and stops dripping.

Did it leave a puddle at home or work?

Folks do Pee in coke bottles and leave them ya know.

Whizzzz bomb