General Petrol Leak

[Steven]

I was out fixing the headlining on the 750 last night and was running it to heat it up when I started getting a smell of petrol. I put about 1/4 tank of fresh fuel in it as the old fuel had been in it for about a year. My first thought was a leak from the tank but having checked all seemed well. It turned out that it's dripping from the pipe from the vacuum advance to the carb. It only seems to be dripping when under pressure, but the leak was right on top of the engine which was getting nicely hot. That could have been very nasty...

Another job for a weekend.

On the plus side the headlining is sorted, it was drooping badly at the back. I took it out and reinforced it by bonding strips of steel to the back. Job done.

 

[Nuova500]

hows it doing that? only air should be passing from the vacuum advance to carb, must be something going on there! should have kept your real OHV engined car!!!

 

[Alex B]

but the leak was right on top of the engine which was getting nicely hot. That could have been very nasty...

mabye thats why they are called a fire engine

 

[Steven]

Alex, I nearly shat myself.

Barry, tell me about it. Ah well, for 50 quid what do you expect? I reckon if I can get away with spending about £150 over the next few months on it I'll still have a cheap car.

 

[Alex B]

im sure it will see you through. on a lighter note id just like to say is anyone else experiencing (sp) the same weather we are in yorkshire? i havnt seen a dry road for weeks. i wash my car and after an hours drive its covered in salty road slime again :yuck:

i can feel the panda rotting away around me

 

[christopher watson]

im sure it will see you through. on a lighter note id just like to say is anyone else experiencing (sp) the same weather we are in yorkshire? i havnt seen a dry road for weeks. i wash my car and after an hours drive its covered in salty road slime again :yuck:

i can feel the panda rotting away around me

same here, i washed my car yesterday, and already you cant see it for road salt

 

[panda_1000_power]

i had a similar problem with my panda as the return fuel pipe was snapped in 2 and petrol leaked onto the engene. replaced with more pipe costing 50p from local motorfactors.worth more than car was in its condition

 

[petel]

Should not be petrol at that location. Please investigate further and let us know what you find, do not want that happening on any of mine.
Rgds.

 

[Nuova500]

here in the sunny south the roads arent too bad, plenty of salt about but on a really dry day not too greasy. Gave Panda a wash, polish and hoover today and blacked the bumpers... looks lovely!

 

[Steven]

Further investigation revealed that it wasn't so much a leak as a downpour. A fivers worth of petrol dissapeared in about 3 minutes. It was simply the fuel hose which had perished. The fuel was running down the hose and pooling at the distributor before dripping off the vacuum advance. Removal of the airbox made it immediately obvious. I was lucky it didn't go up in smoke.

A new fuel hose sorted it, total cost 47p.

The rear brakes seem fine, once they were freed up they are operating well and the handbrake is holding the car.

 

[petel]

Thanks for the update, all is now revealed. I have had one of those braided hoses go before so I know what you mean.
Rgds.

 

[Alan.D]

I replaced all the fuel hoses last month after that freezing problem with the carb, glad I did now.