[200q20v] yikes!!!

[Phil Rose]

I thought I'd mention a narrow escape from potential trouble that I had
while replacing my fuel pump last week.

One of the new-style components I installed was a fuel hose (it runs from
pump to sender unit). This rather creatively priced 20" hose
(4AO-201-351-C, list $51.20) attaches by an ordinary  hose clamp at the
pump's nipple, and its upper end terminates in the same compression-type
fitting used in the previous style. The hose was shipped by Carlsen Audi in
a sealed plastic bag. After I removed the hose from its bag and began to
attach it to my new fuel pump, I had a fleeting glimpse of something "not
quite right": the something was just inside the opening into the
compression-fitting end.  After a few seconds of probing I was able to
extract a 10 mm rubber o-ring that had somehow been lurking--folded
up--inside the fuel line. The fuel line has an inside dia. of just 6 or 7
mm, so at that point the 0-ring could block (at least) 50% of the passage.
How it could have entered the hose accidentally is difficult to imagine.

Whether it might have been able to move downstream--or what symptoms it
might have produced is anyone's guess. Oh, and this hose has some molded
turns, so a "straight-though" visual check of its innards is impossible.

Phil

*********************************
*  Phil & Judy Rose           Rochester, NY  *
*        mailto:pjrose at frontiernet.net       *
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