General Fuel Leak

[knightcento]

More car problems! My favourite:bang:

Went out to the car earlier, smelled strongly of petrol so I had a look underneath and there was a small puddle on the floor (about the size of a tax disk) and it was dripping from the filler hose/pipe where it joins the tank.

Took it straight to the garage and they agreed that it seemed to be the hose at fault, but they rang up to find out how much a new one would be and were told that they aren't being made anymore so best place to look is internet or scrapyard. Can't find the bit on ebay or on here though

Also is it a difficult job to do myself? because the garage reckon it'll take them about an hour and a half which is probably about £90-100 in labour.

 

[dronenrs]

shouldnt be too hard to do. yourself. ive never done it myself though. seems to have happened quite a few times with people.. do a quick search on it.

 

[knightcento]

I did a quick search already and found a little bit of info on removal/replacement. I guess finding a replacement is going to be the difficult bit though

 

[fingers99]

check with ePer -- the Sei one is probably the same. Or try Fluffy.

 

[RuiG]

Hummm I have a question...

Did you have a full/topped tank when it happened? Did you by any chance drive happily until you came to a stop?

Usually the filler caps tend to fail and drip... a lot. One of my Centos did that too and it was the filler cap that was leaking. Only happened with more than 2/3rds of a tank and while attacking corners. It dripped down the bodywork on the inside (near the wheel) and along the filler neck.

 

[knightcento]

Nah, tank was only about half full. I'd been out once, came home for 10mins and when I went back out to the car a small puddle had appeared and it was dripping from the pipe, although it's been parked in a couple of different places since and no more puddles have formed

I've got a water leak somewhere in the engine bay like that aswell, where one day you'll go to the car and there will be a puddle underneath then for ages afterwards, nothing

And who's Fluffy? I've heard the name before but can't remember what it was in connection with.

 

[dronenrs]

Fluffy runs this:http://www.eurocarcare.net/ he's often a lot cheaper than anywhere else

 

[levemircento]

can you determine how close to the tank the pipe is holed/split?

I had same problem a few weeks after replacing the tank, but I was able to cut off the end of the hose [jubilee clip had cut into it] and refit back on tank with no further problems

 

[knightcento]

Not sure how close it is to the tank, just saw that all around the join was soaking and dripping onto the floor (although its since stopped dripping), I'll have a good look in the morning.

 

[knightcento]

I can't see exactly where the fuel is leaking out of, but it seems to be dripping from the clip holding the pipe to the tank And still no luck locating a replacement pipe

 

[knightcento]

Anyone know if the one for the Sei is definitely the same? Can't find out anywhere
If it is, that might make finding a new one a bit easier.

 

[fingers99]

ePer will tell you (compare parts numbers) -- trick is finding a working version.

If all else fails, rubber pipe?

 

[knightcento]

Good News: Managed to get hold of one off someone on Ebay

Bad News: Tried to fit it today but couldn't get the bloody wheel arch lining off, the screws are seized solid:bang:

 

[dronenrs]

your best friend comes in the form of WD40.

 

[knightcento]

The WD40 didn't appear to be working, but have worked round that little issue now.
New problem is can't get the filler hose on the tank and my petrol cap doesn't fit properly in the new pipe:bang:

 

[AppleSei]

some cars have different filler necks, certainly some cinqs do

 

[craigb244]

that hose never fails. on my cinq trailer I cut that pipe to tidy everything up and its very thick plastic and it never moves.

had it leak on my car and it turned out the jubilee clip had failed.
removed the old one and bought a new one... unscrewed the new clip then fitted it around and tightend it back up and all is good... didnt even have to remove the hose/tank