[s-cars] am of course

[manuelsanchez at starpower.net]

Listers,

The old adage, "if it ain't broke don't fix it" is resonating in 
my head.  I hope someone can give some good advice 
here.

I bought a 95.5 S6 avant about 8 months ago.  After 
purchasing I brought the car to the STEALER (think you 
know where this is going) to see if there were any 
outstanding recalls on the car. Sure enough the dreaded 
fuel line recall had not been done and they agreed to 
make the repair free of charge, as they should. Mind you 
that the lines were not leaking when I brought it to them in 
July.  I have noticed a strong odor of fuel upon start-up 
recently, particularly on very cold mornings.  Sure enough, 
the "new and improved" fuel line was leaking significant 
amounts of fuel from the coupling adjacent to the brake 
master cylinder. It was the upper line that was leaking 
onto the lower line, so much so that I could not tell if the 
lower was leaking as well.  I towed it to the stealer.  He 
replaces the upper line at no cost.

I ask if he is going to replace the lower line as well. He 
states that if he can prove that it is bad he would. I of 
course point out that the upper line was supposed to be 
the "new and improved" design, yet it failed. He stated 
that the upper line has a different part number than the 
"new and improved" line that went in as a fix  under the 
recall for the "original" flawed line.  So now I have two fuel 
lines, each with different part numbers.  Then it gets 
better. He states that there is some "bad news".

To quote him, " Now that the fuel line has been replaced 
and the fuel rail is receiving full pressure, another leak 
has developed at the fuel rail, and that item is not covered 
under the recall, so you will have to pay for that. The 
actual part that is failing is a braided hose with a special 
crimped fitting. If i could replace just the hose, I would, 
but the tech says that we have to order the entire rail with 
this braided hose already attached. There are none on 
the east coast. Have to get it from West coast.  Part is 
$478 + 242 labor = $720."

Being the skeptic that I am, I ask if the technician could 
have broken this line as he was repairing the leaking 
line. He said that there was no way he could prove that. 

So is anyone familiar with this area? Is it not possible to 
replace this braided hose by itself without replacing the 
entire fuel rail?  If I am stuck replacing the entire rail, is 
this an opportunity to upgrade to "something better"?

Oy.

-Manny
95.5 S6 Avant
MTM Stage 1+, Big Reds, H&R's and Bilsteins