Fuel line leak

[urdrwho]

Anybody ever have a fuel line tear like this?

 

Last year I have my 97 Outback with the transplanted 2.2 engine to my son.

 

On Monday I get a call from him that he was on the way to work and a fluid whose smell he doesn't recognize has / is making a mess under the hood.

 

I arrive and what I was smelling was gas. Had him start the engine and there I saw gas squirting from the fuel line that enters the fuel filter.

 

I am 64 years old, I've owned cars since I was 16 and have never ever had a fuel line burst. Looking closer the tear is so thin it is as though a razor utility knife cut it.

 

It was @ 30,000 miles ago that I installed a new fuel filter. I could swear that I also installed a new fuel line at that time. The fuel line that had the tear looked good, it wasn't hard and brittle, etc. but I don't see a replacement on my maintenance spreadsheet. Sometimes if it is a little replacement I forget to put it on the sheet. One thing I am positive of is that it was not the original fuel line.

 

I replaced the fuel filter plus fuel line and he was good to go.

 

It was a very, very odd thing and spraying gas under the hood on a running engine isn't good. The fuel vapor is what will ignite. He was lucky that he wasn't on the highway in traffic going 65 MPH without a way to quickly pull off the road.

[Setnev]

If you replaced that line, was it rated for fuel? I have heard of failures like this on lines that aren't rated for oil and fuel.

[urdrwho]

The writing on the hose was still clear and it said fuel injector.

 

If you replaced that line, was it rated for fuel? I have heard of failures like this on lines that aren't rated for oil and fuel.

[doublechaz]

Well, #3 kills my question of was it rated for *high pressure* fuel.

 

I put new fuel lines on mine a couple years ago during a big refresh. Those lines are not as good as the factory lines that lasted 20 years. I expect the new lines to die in one or two more years. Even though they are HPFuel rated.

 

I blame the Mongol hordes.

[urdrwho]

The fuel line coming out of the fuel filter are original. They seem to be a much better hose than the replacements available at the parts store.

 

Ha ha !!! "I blame the Mongol hordes."

 

Well, #3 kills my question of was it rated for *high pressure* fuel.

 

I put new fuel lines on mine a couple years ago during a big refresh. Those lines are not as good as the factory lines that lasted 20 years. I expect the new lines to die in one or two more years. Even though they are HPFuel rated.

 

I blame the Mongol hordes.