Fuel leak in B4

[sjase]

Hi

I\'ve had a problem with a fuel smell since I drove my 2003 B4 Legacy down to Dunedin from Auckland 2 years ago.

I\'ve tightened all the clamps I could (Used to work on a Ford Escort back in the 80\'s, but this car is way too complicated for me), so took it down to Southern Motor Court to show them the ones on the driver side I couldn\'t get at. They said they were all tight and couldn\'t find anything else and charged me $180.

In the morning it\'s most prominent, and I smoke, so I leave the air con on recycle, just in case.

My fuel consumption (according to energy wise anyway) should be 104km for 20 bucks and I\'m getting round 70km when I drive out to Osbourne in the weekend and around town during the week. Kind of hindering me heading out of town because of the fuel cost.

Just wondering if anyone\'s got any tips for tracing this (should I just get the fuel lines replaced?) or if you\'re free and can help out, can pay you in beer or cash.

Cheers.

[Rosssub]

Make a bung for your fuel filler pipe that you can hook an air compressor up to, pump compressed air into the fuel tank until the leak becomes visible.

[Marky]

 sjase said:

Hi

I\'ve had a problem with a fuel smell since I drove my 2003 B4 Legacy down to Dunedin from Auckland 2 years ago.

I\'ve tightened all the clamps I could (Used to work on a Ford Escort back in the 80\'s, but this car is way too complicated for me), so took it down to Southern Motor Court to show them the ones on the driver side I couldn\'t get at. They said they were all tight and couldn\'t find anything else and charged me $180.

In the morning it\'s most prominent, and I smoke, so I leave the air con on recycle, just in case.

My fuel consumption (according to energy wise anyway) should be 104km for 20 bucks and I\'m getting round 70km when I drive out to Osbourne in the weekend and around town during the week. Kind of hindering me heading out of town because of the fuel cost.

Just wondering if anyone\'s got any tips for tracing this (should I just get the fuel lines replaced?) or if you\'re free and can help out, can pay you in beer or cash.

Cheers.

that fuel use is probably about right to be honest - $20 is what, 8 litres or so? If you manage under 10l/100km from a turbo suby around town youre doing really well

i get a consistent 150-160km from 90% town driving on $40 of 98, for example

the fuel smell - is it constant or only when cold

[sobanoodle]

I get around 200km for $50 of 98 - city/motorway, semi-heavy foot.

Also noticed some fuel smell, winter mornings only, none of that during summer. Pretty well-known issue for BH/BE isn\'t it?

[ryn]

Non constructive but good to see SMC at it again.....

[Muss]

There are fuel lines that go underneath the intake manifold (atleast in the TT, so assuming this is a facelift 03 BE/BH), and there are some rubber hoses under there that have clamps on them. If all the visible ones are tight, then it could be those. Manifold has to be lifted to get at them though, so are annoying to have to replace

[tebbyj]

This is a very common problem on Legacy\'s of this era, as muss said there a fuel lines that go under the intake manifold. from memory some of the lines were made from different material so shield from heat and this caused different expansion and contraction rates (hence in can mainly only be smelt when cold) in these lines compared to the standard ones which can cause minor leaks at joins. As far as i\'m aware no fires or anything have resulted....

All you have to do is search legacy fuel smell on google and you get hundreds of million results.