Hello all,

I've searched the internet for a couple hours and haven't found any answers to my situation. The situation, filled up gas tank (fully) yesterday and when I got home (couple miles later) a fuel dripping spot (and subsequent fuel odor) emerged under the rear seat in front of the tire. Upon inspection, I saw two lines, one appeared to be a pressure side and the other would be a return side. The one that was leaking was a soft hose (with two quick clamps) between two hard lines. One hard line run up the engine bay and the other end appeared directly on the side of the gas tank. BTW, I do not have any leaks related to the filler neck or vent line.

My first reaction was the gas tank seam was leaking but as I've dug further I'm not so sure. When I removed the access panel I saw the pressure side (with compression union) and I saw the return side with two quick clamps again. Upon disconnecting the return side, the leak immediately stopped. What I'm first confused by is that the return line at the fuel pump is a soft line that goes into a hard line that joins back into a soft line alongside the fuel tank.

Is this hard line attached to the fuel tank? The leak is coming from that hard line as it emerges alongside the tank (then connected to a soft line).

Is the hard line there because of possibly rubbing against a sharp edge on the fuel tank seam?

Finally, should I fish a soft, fuel line from above and bypass the hard line section?

Thanks.

John

 

You can see the leak?

There is another line coming off the top of the tank for the EVAP system. It uses a combination of steel and rubber hoses. This line bolts to the top of the tank.

The other two lines may bolt onto the tank at a bracket where the rubber return hose meets the steel hose. A fitting at this location holds the now two steel lines together.

Are you thinking the metal section of the return line is cracked?

 

Yes. I can see both the hose on the top of the tank and where the two lines go from the pump to the metal bracket. During the initial inspection it looked like the hardline was leaking on the return line. To be sure, I pulled the soft line portion off the pump top and the leak stopped. My solution was to route a soft fuel line from the pump area to the hard line in front off the tank effectively bypassing the section that was leaking. Everything is now dry...until...the next leak occurs.

Thanks.