Fuel Leak '90 90q20v

Tue May 21 15:33:19 EDT 2002

Dave,
Will CC this to the list for archive bait.
Got the tank out yesterday and dropped it off to get repaired this morning.
Getting the tank out was basically pretty easy..other than the hose clamps
on the feed and return lines under the car (where they join the tank).  The
installer must have been in a sadistic mood on the day he worked on my
car...there isn't much room to manouver to begin with and he had the screws
in the clamps angled up where it was next to impossible to get anything on
them (in addition to the rust!).  Took me about a half hour with a small
pair of vise grips to get the feed line off and in the end I just cut the
return line (easy and cheap to replace--8mm fuel hose).

First thing to do is get rid of the carpets, not a problem with the floor
carpet but start with the right hand (passenger) side with the fender/trunk
wall carpet.  You don't have to take it all out, stop at the spare tire and
let the remainder hang out of the car (looks like a bit of a bitch to get it
out of the recesses, and back in, around the holes for the jack etc.)

Next, undo the join of the filler neck at the body, simply open the filler
door and peel back the rubber seal to expose the retaining ring-comes out
easy enough with a pair of needle nose pliers.  There is one screw on the
filler neck, about half way down--careful, there is a speed nut on the back
that may want to fall into the nether reaches of the fender when you get the
screw out.  The overflow line will have to come out of the rubber seal
around the neck, again easy but I gave it a shot of silicone lube (the clear
liquid kind that nourishes rubber) to make it that must easier and to make
sure I didn't tear anything.  The hose on the gravity/vent valve is just a
regular hose clamp.  I also removed the pinch-type locking clamp for the
vent line because I couldn't see where it went and from the Bentley it
looked like it should have to come off (it didn't but my tank is configured
for the long load possiblity/ski sack and the diagram was for the non-sack
tank, might make a difference).

Undo the bolts that hold the tank brackets to the body and take the brackets
out with the tank.  First, I undid the bracket-to-tank bolts thinking there
would be enough room to manouver the tank over the brackets---you probably
could but it is much easier to take the brackets too.  Oh yeah, forgot about
the connector and hose on the sending unit but you would have noticed that.
Not much to report under the car other than push the e-brake cable out of
the guide to give you more room to get at the G.D. hose clamps.  Careful,
there will be a gush of fuel--I managed to dodge it easy enough but even
though I ran the tank just about dry before hand, there was alot of force
(eye protection is a good idea anytime under a car but in this case it would
be stupid not to).

The easiest way to get the tank out is to push it as far left and towards
the front of the car as possible to angle out the filler neck first.

All in all, a pretty easy job that took me about two hours (mainly because
of the hose clamps), I did it on ramps in a gravel lot with a tarp and no
major dilemmas.

The tank shop can repair the hard lines on the tank without cutting them off
and welding on new ones so the cost shouldn't be that great.  I ordered the
rubber grommet/dust seal that sits in the floor from the dealer (CAN $37.96)
retaining ring for the floor seal ($2.54) and a new locking-type hose clamp
for the vent line (forget the price and didn't write it down).  Will replace
the underside hose clamps with stainless units from my stash, the new return
line should be only a few bucks from Canadian Tire and will put new lock
nuts (M8) on the tank-to-bracket bolts.

Guess that's about it, should get another 12 years out of tank :-)

Cheers,
John
'90 90q20v

PS. The P/N on the floor seal I removed is 893 201 193A, dealer and Family
Album list it as 811 201 193B, will let you know if there is any difference.

>From: "David Hord" <dhord at vibrantpower.com>
>To: "john clarke" <johnclarke303 at hotmail.com>
>Subject: RE: Fuel Leak
>Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 13:00:59 -0400
>
>That'd be great!
>
>Keep me posted!
>
>-Dave
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: john clarke [mailto:johnclarke303 at hotmail.com]
>Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2002 12:56 PM
>To: David Hord
>Subject: Re: Fuel Leak
>
>
>Thanks Dave,
>I have since been talking to a shop and faxed over diagrams from the
>Bentley
>and family album.  They think it's do-able--just have to de-fume the
>tank
>first.  Other than these little tubes, the tank is perfect--could eat
>off of
>it.  I had the carpets out and it looks like a simple job to get the
>tank
>out other than the retaining ring at the neck (although that it probably
>
>simple after you do it once--I'm just afraid of breaking something where
>I
>haven't done it before).  Already decided to either give the tubes a
>coat of
>rust paint and/or slip some heat-shrinkable tubing over them before I
>reinstall.  Will let you know what I find out, if you like.
>Cheers,
>John
>
>
> >From: "David Hord" <dhord at vibrantpower.com>
> >To: <johnclarke303 at hotmail.com>
> >Subject: Fuel Leak
> >Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 11:09:10 -0400
> >
> >John,
> >
> >Three options:
> >
> >New tank
> >
> >New used tank
> >
> >Weld new pipes onto current tank.
> >
> >
> >All three options require the removal of your stock tank.  I just did
> >the same thing on my quattro about 4 months ago.  Sorry, I don't know
> >how to remove the tank.  It was winter, I went to a shop!
> >
> >-Dave
>
>
>
>
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