super cold weather an plastic fuel lines...

Went to leave work for lunch....got in my car an it smelled of gas....GREAT...i thought for sure one of my injector 0-ring took a crap.....open the hood an the main press line is pissing all over...like someone pricked it with a needle...

I cut the plastic line off from the metal line to the quick connect..an use 2 feet of fuel line..an some clamps for now... i could leave it as both connections have 2 small beads on them...but i decided to order the Dorman plastic fuel line repair kit.. it retails for $210 got it brand new off ebay for $120... and mostly got it because it will come in handy in other situations also.. its a 110 piece kit an comes with 2 coils of plastic nylon line...so no piecing things together..i'm just glad i noticed it in the parking lot..an not on the highway..or worse when the car catches on fire..

Yep, lucky you caught it while parked. We had a 96 Grand Caravan my wife was driving. Coming home from out of town a fuel rail split and spewed gas ALL OVER the engine compartment. She was 5 min from home and didn't want to stop when she smelled gas... aaarrrggghhh !!!!! I watched her pull up into the driveway and could see gas running off the undercarriage and could smell it as soon as I stepped out the front door. By some miracle it did not catch on fire.

It will be interesting to see what happens if plastic fuel lines that have been in service for a while continue splitting.

If any of you have any *engineering* information about the expected lifetime of these lines, please share if you can. I am guessing 10-20 years depending on the chemistry of the fuel, but I have *no* idea.

In the meantime, Rob, what's the Dorman stock number on the fuel line repair kit?

Albertj

Its 800-300

link

I came across this site today:

http://www.injector.com/

they show braided stainless steel fuel lines.

Any comments about whether these would be good replacements for our plastic fuel lines (at least in engine compartment) and if there are fittings available to make theme work as replacements for the splitting lines?

Albertj