By all means, do those fuel lines ASAP! I'd not paid any attention to that or perhaps missed the warnings. I'd owned my van for about 4 months when on a trip into town, I began smelling gas. I was following a beater Camaro and thought.."boy, is that guy's car running rich!" but then I noticed my gas gauge was visibly sinking as I drove! In a few miles, I went from 1/4 tank to almost empty...and it dawned on me!! Wow, I was spewing gas out as I drove... So, rather than just stop and jump out...(I've seen racecars burst into flames as they stopped and the fuel leaks 'caught up') I planned it out and stopped at a very wide downhill that I knew of, after reviewing where exactly I was going to look, where my extinguisher was, what I was going to try to save in case a fireball happened (I had my $5k race bicycle inside) etc etc... So, when I pulled into the wide spot and leaned out, looking back under the van...yep! A huge puddle of gas under the motor and more pouring out as the motor ran. I shut it off quickly (as I'd planned to do), the flow quit and I jumped out and rolled the van off the puddle to try (successfully) to keep it from igniting... One of the old braided (original, I bet) fuel lines had split... I rode my bike into the FLAPS and got about 20' of fuel injection hose and replaced them all right there..Took a few hours, but the whole time I was telling myself how lucky I'd been...Sheesh! I also have just found a billet fuel rail to replace my plastic one..that will be done very quickly now as well. (My van has a Rabbit motor, with many aftermarket parts available) Don Hanson |
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