Bought a 3.6 TDV8 recently and I have noticed a diesel smell only recently and drips on the drive!!
If I look underneath, the left hand side (near side) is wet and the right hand side is dry.
Checked under bonnet and saw some smoke from the rear right hand side from under the V8 cover so removed it.
Checked the usual with the fuel heater and it's not that,so remove the clamps on the coolant pipes to push them aside and can get no further as I can't remove a cylinder head cover over the fuel injectors between the engine and battery compartment.
I noted that the fuel supply pipe to the right hand fuel rail is OK and so are the four fuel pipes from the rail to the injectors,so I am making the assumption it may be the fuel pipe connector on of the injectors under the cover. (Or an injector?)
Looks like if I remove the battery I will be able to get to the cover to remove and then re-assess.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated

Mike

Can you be sure it is not just the fuel burning heater kicking in?

Complaints of diesel smell and smoke made by new owners when the outside temp drops to near freezing are legendary on the site.

The exhaust for the FBH is low down on the nearside front of the engine compartment. There can be some condensation around this area.

If there really is a fuel leak then can you take it back to the seller for attention under warranty? 2008 MY Java Black TDV8 HSE

No it's definately not the heater as I have taken fuse 28 out.
It's an 2007 model with 59,000 on the clock by the way.
If I look down the gap between the engine and the battery/fuse compartment the diesel staining is down the engine below the right hand engine head,you can also see the staining along the chassis along the same side (near side) from below and the offside chassis is dry.
The area around the heater exhaust is dry.
It may have been there when I bought it and the 3 month warranty has ran out a couple of months ago
I have only noticed as the smell now (sometimes) comes in the cab with the blower on
I'll look again at the weekend and try to upload some photographs
I think if I remove the battery and surrounding battery collapsible box I'll be able to remove the cover over the right hand cylinder head to look at the fuel rail and injectors.

Keep you posted.

Mike

OK - I had to ask the FBH question though as it comes up so often.

Have a look at this thread about the injector leak-off pipes:
http://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic19193.html 2008 MY Java Black TDV8 HSE

Thanks for the thread link, fingers crossed I would say it looks exactly as the photo's in the thread and the OP obviously had the same trouble removing the injector cover.

I'll keep you updated

Mike