Don't ignore your fuel lines this year...

Have just been doing a few jobs for my bro in law on his van. Opened garage to find horrific smell of fuel and a weeping fuel line coming out of tank. Tried pinching pipe but leaked there too. Had some proper pipe so replaced the lot.
His pipe had been changed two years ago, was that crappy woven covered type.
Please everyone go and check your vans and throw out all of this cheap unsuitable pipe. Plenty of posts of which say best type.
Close shave, it was dripping into the exhaust manifold!

Cut the hose in two, completely perished...
Stay safe
Si

Yep, can be worrying, there was a van that went up on the A1 here in north east, although not sure what caused it.

I replace mine every year now, funnily enough just done it yesterday, took 30mins max so I cant see why people moan if they need to do it.

The fit and forget ones worry me, stainless braided kind is not fit for purpose, far too stiff.

The biofuel lines look good, but I've even heard of R9 rated lines cracking.

My wife was on Facebook yesterday and a short video of a Splitty in flames was on there. May have been a fuel leak that caused it to happen. As said here on other threads, this MOT exemption is a bit of a worry. Fuel and brake lines mainly are discussed and the checking of them. I’m putting a reminder of all needed periodical checks on a visual prompter inside the bus. I know you should do it anyway, but it’s good to establish a regular routine. Time has a habit of seeming shorter, when in fact it flies by and it’s longer than you thought. Going to read my Muir and write a VW survival checking list. Mind you. Don’t know about keeping the VW alive. I want to keep my family, friends, the public and myself alive.

Oh! And ‘edit’.......I’ll be MOT-ing as usual.

Webbaldo said:

Yep, can be worrying, there was a van that went up on the A1 here in north east, although not sure what caused it.

I replace mine every year now, funnily enough just done it yesterday, took 30mins max so I cant see why people moan if they need to do it.

The fit and forget ones worry me, stainless braided kind is not fit for purpose, far too stiff.

The biofuel lines look good, but I've even heard of R9 rated lines cracking.

Click to expand...

As far as I can tell, there is no proven fit-and-forget fuel line, but worryingly more people seem to be looking for options that mean replacing them less often. Until I can see some long-term proof that certain solutions are guaranteed, like yourself, I’ll just stick to replacing them yearly. At least it is peace of mind then rather than gambling with a ‘new’ option.

I’d love to know why our VW’s seem to have this issue with fuel line cracking - is it just us?


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I don’t need to change my cars’ fuel lines regularly, why do we have to on our old VW s ?
I am not saying I don’t change the fuel lines or inspect them regularly but surely the pipe is the same supplied to the manufacturers and regular garages.?


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R9 will crack, definitely.....

As noted elsewhere, it's the Ethanol content in the modern fuel that does the damage, so we need modern hose like fitted to a modern car today. I don't know the spec, but we need bio-hose.

Ethanol also attracts and holds water, so not good for the fuel tank either. I think I read that the water/Ethanol mix will sit on the surface, right where it has some oxygen and can rust our tanks.

Moseley said:

Webbaldo said:

Yep, can be worrying, there was a van that went up on the A1 here in north east, although not sure what caused it.

I replace mine every year now, funnily enough just done it yesterday, took 30mins max so I cant see why people moan if they need to do it.

The fit and forget ones worry me, stainless braided kind is not fit for purpose, far too stiff.

The biofuel lines look good, but I've even heard of R9 rated lines cracking.

Click to expand...

As far as I can tell, there is no proven fit-and-forget fuel line, but worryingly more people seem to be looking for options that mean replacing them less often. Until I can see some long-term proof that certain solutions are guaranteed, like yourself, I’ll just stick to replacing them yearly. At least it is peace of mind then rather than gambling with a ‘new’ option.

I’d love to know why our VW’s seem to have this issue with fuel line cracking - is it just us?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

The fuel lines aren't deteriorating from the inside from fuel contact, they seem to start cracking on the exterior at stress points (such as on bends and at joints) which leads me to believe engine bay temperature and heat soak may be the major contributor.

Could there be some sort of heat shield or cooling fan fitted around or near the fuel lines ??

sparkywig said:

Moseley said:

Webbaldo said:

Yep, can be worrying, there was a van that went up on the A1 here in north east, although not sure what caused it.

I replace mine every year now, funnily enough just done it yesterday, took 30mins max so I cant see why people moan if they need to do it.

The fit and forget ones worry me, stainless braided kind is not fit for purpose, far too stiff.

The biofuel lines look good, but I've even heard of R9 rated lines cracking.

Click to expand...

As far as I can tell, there is no proven fit-and-forget fuel line, but worryingly more people seem to be looking for options that mean replacing them less often. Until I can see some long-term proof that certain solutions are guaranteed, like yourself, I’ll just stick to replacing them yearly. At least it is peace of mind then rather than gambling with a ‘new’ option.

I’d love to know why our VW’s seem to have this issue with fuel line cracking - is it just us?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

The fuel lines aren't deteriorating from the inside from fuel contact, they seem to start cracking on the exterior at stress points (such as on bends and at joints) which leads me to believe engine bay temperature and heat soak may be the major contributor.

Click to expand...

Heard from a chemistry prof today (work in education) he reckons the vapour from the ethanol sitting in the pipes naturally evaporates through the rubber taking the natural oils with it. A combination of that and heat causes them to crack from the outside.

And for reference, these were my r6 hoses after 15months. I stupidly fitted the same stuff on sunday night before taking the old one to bits and discovering this. Hence I've ordered some r9 from volksbolts to replace it with. AGAIN

I'll still be replacing it yearly anyway

Weird thing is, regarding heat, the worse cracked part was above the gearbox, and I don't have heat exchangers, so no real heat here?! to crack them. It was the straight bit as well, not the bend to the tank. Weirdly ones in engine bay were ok. All fitted at same time.

Interesting post above, as when I changed mine recently (had been fitted for about 2 years), the cracking was also worse on certain straight sections, rather than on the bends where I'm sure the minimum bend radius was being exceeded. Not anywhere near as bad as above mind! As Sparky has said, all mine were showing cracks externally, rather than the age-related internal cracks on pipes that have been fitted for many years.

Although our engine bays are no warmer than a modern-car, maybe they are not using rubber hoses in the engine compartment? And then other classics tend to be less well-sealed than modern cars in terms of the engine compartment, so maybe this helps to keep the air cooler around the fuel line runs. Just thinking out loud really...

I had a quick look at mine when I was doing the brakes and they all seemed good. Going to have a more in depth check this weekend. I used the biofuel hose from afs. This was around 3 years ago now so may be a better option than doing it every year. Will check and update

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I've just bought some biofuel line from VW aircooled works. This has a Kunifer pipe from the bulkhead up to the fuel pump so hopefully minimises the amount of rubber pipe in the engine bay area. Not cheap though.

:mrgreen: Following on from this thread and all the great points above :mrgreen:
I was chatting about this very issue with several people and lots more info out there leads me to believe that it isn’t just a case of one thing. Jonathan was talking me through the modern composition of these fuel pipes and talking about the plasticisers used to make them and the fact that there is no rubber or next to no natural rubber in the mix nowadays topped with the ^^^ about ethanol permeating through the modern pipes. It’s a wonder there’s any air cooled left. Pipes cracking like billyo on bends and others cracking on the straight bits could that possibly be down to the vibes induced on a straight section more so than most bends as they are close to a terminating point so less flapping about. Does this mean that the flexible fuel pipes aren’t as flexible as we’d like? So are we better using more hard lines and forming the bends in these then allowing regular fuel pipes to be more or less just connectors and support them on each end? But we need flexis because of movement and vibes and expansion and contraction. :roll:

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,,another fella thinking out loud,, listen to the cogs groaning :mrgreen: :lol: :mrgreen: