Have been getting this error code for awhile, but haven't really looked into it too much. Its not the gas cap. Check out these pictures and tell me what I should do. The gas smell definitely comes from the trunk. Check it out. The dark colored stuff on the right hand side is dried up fuel as far as i can tell, but I cant actively see it leaking anywhere.

 

Use some channel locks and twist the lock counter clockwise and pull out the sender that your looking at in the trunk, There is a large rubber o-ring the sender sits inside. (note that rarely fails)
Check under the car on the passenger's side and see if you notice if the gas tank is wet on the bottom, there is a small evap nipple on the gas tank that breaks off and leaks fuel on the passenger's side.

 

gonna go check that right now, but there is something dried up in that picture, and it sure smells like gas, and other explanation?

 

ItIS dried up gas, possibly from a previous repair.

 

couldnt find anything leaking anywhere, i can smell gas anytime i open the trunk, maybe this is the dried up gas im smelling??? i only get a gas smell when its running and the windows are open. so could it possibly be a gas cap?? what else would make it smell outside the vehicle?

 

There are three seals on top of the tank, the one in the trunk that you saw, and two under the back seat on each side of the car, remove the rear seat bench and you should see two covers with three phillips screws, under those are even larger o-rings, you can get a replacment kit to change all of those, and to easy check for the gas cap is to put your nose as close as possible to the fuel door flap and open the flap, if you smell gas the cap is bad.

 

does it matter if the car is running when i check the gas cap?

 

No, if you smell gas when its running or not the cap is bad, and if it is thats probably whats causing you fault code.

 

alright, just got a new gas cap, will see how it does. is that fuel tank sending unit in the picture the location of the one that was in the recall for giving false fuel level readings? if it is, i bet thats why all that fuel is spilled there, because of the recall fix

 

There isn't any recalls for the A6 fuel pump, and no the fuel pump is on the passenger's side under the bench seat. I bet someone replaced that fuel sender, you might wanna check that one though because it has to be installed correctly, when you remove the lock with the channel locks like i said in the trunk there should be a little white arrow, make sure the sender is lined up with the arrow, because that will also give you some wacked out readings on the fuel gauge when getting below 1/4 tank.