Petrol pouring from here!

[David Winter 0]

Hi.

Ive suspected a petrol leak for a while cause of the powerful stench on start up. Today I put the car on axle stands before doing a cold start.It struggles in to life I suspect because the fuel system has lost pressure.It is leaking where you can see the plastic fuel lines under the car. The bizzare thing is that after several minutes the leaking stops and it will be fine until the next cold start. See attached photos. Appologies for photo quality.

Any ideas guys?

[dinkus 10]

The smell will stop because the fuel line will empty itself and doesn't get re-pressurised until you start the igntion again.

 

I'm fairly sure the fuel hose is a chunky bit of rubber pipe, but I may be wrong. Either way, you want to get the whole pipe replaced from the fuel filter to the engine bay.

[David Winter 0]

Cheers. That makes sense. Looks tricky to get too though. There seems to be no oter leaks around the engine itself. Fuel rail etc all looks sound so replacing the said pipe seems a good starting point once I figure out how to get to it!

[Supercharged 2]

I wonder if the return is blocked?

 

That also looks very close to the cat so i would be extremly careful investigating and don't drive it until you get it sorted!

[dinkus 10]

Aye - that would make more sense as it's only a skinny pipe...?

[Skimask 0]

Pretty sure my one has foam padding where it goes through the chassis - could be to stop it chaffing against metal.

[Yandards 0]

Blue one is fuel return line, black one is fuel delivery line.

 

One you turn the ignition to the run position and before you actually start the car the fuel pump should run until the system is pressurised then stop. Obviously yours isnt because it is dumping fuel everywhere.

 

Whole new pipes both feed and return should cost you around £50 from the dealer and is much cheaper than a new car..

[craigowl 0]

Don't underestimate danger of this, David.

When my eldest son took his VR6 to garage complaining of smell of petrol fumes, leaking pipes were identified and they would not allow him to take car away in that state.

[David Winter 0]

I took out the fuel soaked piece of foam before I took the picture. You guys say the return could be blocked. How and where do I check this.

[David Winter 0]

See your point. Did not know the leak was that bad. Drove to Devon last week too!. Access looks tight . Is it a difficult job to change these or is it best to get a garage to do it

[David Winter 0]

Guys I cant understand this.

I had some time tonight so removed the air box and checked the joints between the plastic pipes to the tank and the engine. There is a jacket with a velcro opening. No signs of a leak here. So started the car and vissualy checked for leaking and nothing anywhere!. It only seems to leak fuel after a cold morning start when the air temperature is cooler and it takes some turning over. But I would have thought as the fuel pressure would be lower then it would be less likely to leak.! It starts first pop in the warm air of afternoon.

[RS VR6 0]

I had a similar issue as you.

 

Letting the fuel system depressurize will cause the fuel leak. If you drive the car everyday...the lines will not depressurize.

 

Remove the rubber lines that go from the fuel rail to the plastic hard lines. Inspect the ends of the rubber lines. Mine were badly cracked.

[David Winter 0]

To conclude this the problem was found to be as RS VR6 said.

I manage to pull the fuel lines out off the clips at the end of the silver jacket and move them away from each other enough so that when I did the next cold start I could see exactly where the leak was. It was the joint between the clear fuel line and the rubber pipe to the engine. So it must have been pouring down that siver heat proof jacket and out the bottom of the chassis where I first saw it. I simply removed the air box and piping so I could get to it removed the clip and sure enough the ends of the rubber pipe were split. I cut half an inch off and re-joined with a new screw clip. It seems ok after a couple of days. There is now no petrol smell. I had not realized how bad it was until it had gone. Thats pretty good as it cost me 45p to fix!

Thanks for your help and advise guys.