Yesterday I night I tried to startup my WRX ...... and it took me a while before I could get it started. After that, I smelt a ton of gas fumes in the car!! Good thing I did not light up a cig ... else I would have been in flames .....

Does anyone have idea why this would happen?

I did not pump the gas while starting
I am sure there was enough gas in the tank
The starter was cranking but the car would not start
It was not excessivly cold that night
I have no idea what is going on

Even today, although it started without any problems, I still smell gas fumes :P Any ideas?

Yeah. it was cold. :)

What I do is turn the key to on and you'll hear the fuel pump prime for about 2-3 seconds... THEN I turn the key to start. It only takes like 2 hits and the engine is running instead of the 4 or 5...

No issues. It used to happen sometimes on cold days.... but no more.

--kC

The gas fume smell is normal. Especially on cold days.(it knows the temp outside)The computer is loading the engine for a quick start and quick warm-up so it can go into closed loop quickly for better emissions and fuel economy.

My 02 WRX started no problem, but also had severe gas fumes (2 days after we had a couple "below zero" nights). Top of engine was visibly wet. Dealer found 2 fuel line hoses were not tight enough so when it got that cold, gas sprayed out between the rubber hose and metal line (they said b/c the metal line shrunk so much.....) They tightened the hose clamps (after having to remove the intake manifold) and no more fumes.

i have this problem sometimes, until someone told me to prime the fuel pump first. ever since, ive had no probs, but u do smell gas when its cold. its normal, dont worry about it.