Narrative:

Flight crew; during walk around; found evidence of fuel leak inside of left wheel well. First officer showed me what he found. I saw some fuel droplets on hydraulic line clamp bundle. Looked to see where the leak could be coming from. In the wheel well; the bottom of wing-to-body fairing was dry; looked through opening between the bottom of fuel tank and fairing did not see any fuel on bottom of tank. I opened door on the bottom of fairing to take another look of the area. Did not see any fuel in this area. Went back to shop; got a ladder to look at the left-hand edge of tank from top to bottom edge. No leak noticed in this section of tank; but did find a small area at bottom of tank at the lower outboard section. This area has fasteners that attach the bottom to aft spar; no leaks at any fastener; only where the sealant was applied to the outer edge where the aft spar and bottom of the fuselage joined together. After finding this; I called maintenance operations for guidance and possible fix to this discrepancy. Took awhile for maintenance operations to find a reference to use; chapter (28-11-00); I cleaned area and applied sealant to area where fuel leak was found. After putting up equipment and signing logbook; went back and checked area to make sure no fuel was leaking. No leak noted.my lack of knowledge of the allowable fuel leakage in wheel well area and a lack of communication between me and maintenance operations were some of the causes; plus I was under some pressure to keep departure delay to minimum.in the future; any fuel leaks in wheel well need to be fixed; no matter how small they are.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Line Mechanic reports a First Officer found evidence of fuel leaking inside the left wheelwell of an ERJ-190 during preflight. After applying sealant to the suspected area; Mechanic signed-off the write-up. He is informed later; the aircraft should have been ferried or grounded.

Narrative: Flight Crew; during walk around; found evidence of fuel leak inside of left wheel well. First Officer showed me what he found. I saw some fuel droplets on hydraulic line clamp bundle. Looked to see where the leak could be coming from. In the wheel well; the bottom of wing-to-body fairing was dry; looked through opening between the bottom of fuel tank and fairing did not see any fuel on bottom of tank. I opened door on the bottom of fairing to take another look of the area. Did not see any fuel in this area. Went back to Shop; got a ladder to look at the left-hand edge of tank from top to bottom edge. No leak noticed in this section of tank; but did find a small area at bottom of tank at the lower outboard section. This area has fasteners that attach the bottom to aft spar; no leaks at any fastener; only where the sealant was applied to the outer edge where the aft spar and bottom of the fuselage joined together. After finding this; I called Maintenance Operations for guidance and possible fix to this discrepancy. Took awhile for Maintenance Operations to find a reference to use; Chapter (28-11-00); I cleaned area and applied sealant to area where fuel leak was found. After putting up equipment and signing Logbook; went back and checked area to make sure no fuel was leaking. No leak noted.My lack of knowledge of the allowable fuel leakage in wheel well area and a lack of communication between me and Maintenance Operations were some of the causes; plus I was under some pressure to keep departure delay to minimum.In the future; any fuel leaks in wheel well need to be fixed; no matter how small they are.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.