P38 Petrol Leak near tank

Evening Guys,

Noticed a sizeable petrol leak coming from around the fuel tank when the engine is running (not going to be running again until this get sorted!)Seemed to be running down the side of the tank towrds the centre of the car. Any ideas about likely sources that you could point me to. is a 96 4.6 V8

At the moment I'm assuming it is corroded pipes around the top of the tank somewhere, but I see there is no access pannel from inside the car

I'm assuming its a drop tank exercise, the unfortunate thing is my wife just filled the tank with 100L of BP's finest.

So I need to get the fuel out first, can i just syphon it from the fuel filler cap, or is there some sort of anti theft mechanism which stops this? RAVE indicates I can't remove the filler pipe if the tank is full.

If it is the pipes, can I just chop out the coroded sections and replace them with rubber fuel lines using jubilee clips to join to the good metal sections?

Well I needed to do the rear brake lines anyway, so dropping the fuel tank will probably help with access.

Could I use the same copper pipe I got for the brake lines for the fuel ones, are the connectors the same?

sorry for all the questions

Any and all help more than gratefully received

Cheers

James

You're basically correct. Officially it's a 'tank off' job which means you're going to have to virtually empty the tank. If you're going to drop the tank then you might as well replace the in-tank pump as well.

However there is an alternative. You could make yourself an access hatch. A duff in-tank pump is a main reason for poor starting on the diesels and a search of the forum will turn up several threads on this including some with the measurements of where to cut into the floor (just behind the back seat).

At first glance it looks horrendous but I did it in a morning, replaced the pump, made a cover and now forget all about it until this subject is raised. Of course if I have any other pump problems it'll be a thirty minute job to replace it again.

I've got some sort of leak in that area as well, but surely cutting the access hatch when you know there's a fuel leak around there is a bad idea...?

Guy

That was my thought also, can see it makes sense while you have the tank out the first time to cut the access hatch. But the thought of cutting it when there could be a pool of fuel in the pump recess scares the hell out of me.

No sense of adventure some people.




And they drive a Ranger Rover!




Yea, O.K. I'll give you that one.
Yet another reason why you should have bought a diesel.

Ended up getting a draper hand pump/syphon kit but had to get 3m of extra hose as it only came with 90cm which didn't even reach the tank.
It was slow (really slow) but effective.

Dropped the tank, the hardest thing was getting the hose between the filler neck and the tank off. Found the offending part I think, the return pipe where it joins the tank was basically rusted through, which ment it snapped without much force.

So I've got a new pump on its way, I now need to find the 2 fuel line sections from the tank to the fuel filter area, but can't seem to find them on my usual part sites.

So will I have to make up my own pipes, will copper pipe I got to do the brakes be OK? and what fittings do I need to get.

Sorry for all the questions

Least I have better access to do the brake lines now

yep, id cut a hole if i did it again, loads easier, got mine done in about an hour, or so, i was scared at thought of dremmel grinder etc, so used an airchisel, marvellous kit form ebay, used it for loadsa things, but cutting metal is my fave, plus no heat, and less chance of going through wires etc, but please be very carefull with grinder/dremmel, as if yours was like mine there will be a puddle of flammable liquid waiting for you
ps the guide on here was spot on.
thanks again for listing it

Right done a bit of searching for the pipes on microcat

Tank to fuel filter pipe - ESR3136

Rear return pipe section to tank - ESR3137

But I can't find them anywhere!

The Britcar website however has ESR 3136 being superceded by WJP106150 and ESR3137 being superceded by WJP106160

But this was the only place that said these WJP part codes could swap in for the old ESR part codes

Can any body point me in the right direction, are the WJP part codes straight replacements for my 96 4.6

cheers

James

2005lyndon said:

yep, id cut a hole if i did it again, loads easier, got mine done in about an hour, or so, i was scared at thought of dremmel grinder etc, so used an airchisel, marvellous kit form ebay, used it for loadsa things, but cutting metal is my fave, plus no heat, and less chance of going through wires etc, but please be very carefull with grinder/dremmel, as if yours was like mine there will be a puddle of flammable liquid waiting for you
ps the guide on here was spot on.
thanks again for listing it

Click to expand...

Pair of Monodex cutters or a nibbler would be better.

Well an update

Tank back in with new pump and lines to the filter, and front to rear brake pipes changed. just hope my flaring is up to the job. Just need to bleed the brakes tomorrow. I've cut the fuel pump access panel just in case. All untested as yet

But god did those brake pipes take some effort and patience to get them loose!


But I have another question to ask you kind folks.

The engine side fuel line to the filter has had its nut near rounded at the filter so it won't come off (For once not my fault). So my idea is to cut the pipe and use the corresponding section of the old pipe from filter to the tank as it has the same connector and join the 2 pieces with some correct rubber fuel hose, using jubilee clips to secure it.

Can anybbody see any problems with this? MOT wise

I think it should be ok to use rubber hose as the original lines have rubber sections. But will the jubilee clips be ok to secure it?


Cheers

James