scoobyster

Hi All,

I'm in the process of servicing a MY98 GL/Sport and trying to rectify a few issues. One is that the MOT gave an advisory of corroded fuel pipe(s). I've no more detail than that! The owner suspects a fuel leak having had relatively poor MPG (perhaps 20% down) and a wiff of fuel near the rear the other day. I had a look underneath, suspecting the fuel filler, but in fact the filler neck is in reasonable shape, though I will clean it up and give it some underseal for protection. The breather pipe though has seen better days. It is quite heavily corroded, particularly after passing through the chassis rail going towards the tank. I don't understand how fuel could leak from the breather pipe as it should just be air filled, but perhaps the MPG is just due to the cold weather and the fuel smell was a passing car or something.

This section of breather pipe just connects between the rubber hose from the tank and the rubber hose going up towards the pipe exiting near the fuel filler (which is in better shape). Therefore the replacement pipe doesn't have to be a perfect match so I'm wondering about replacing with domestic 15mm copper pipe and solder ring fittings at the ends to give the hoses something to seal on. I could cut off the bracket that holds the pipe in place and solder that to my new pipe. Sound like a plan? That assumes that the pipe is just a pipe and any valves or what have you are elsewhere in the system. I presume the breather pipe is just to let air out of the tank when filling up with fuel, and it seems it has a one way valve somewhere since the tank fills with air when you open the fuel filler cap (hiss sound). Am I right, and where is that valve?

I think this is most likely to be what the MOT man was referring too as it does look in poor shape, although I don't think it matters much since it's just for purging air from the tank, or am I missing something? Where are the pipes delivering fuel from the tank to the engine bay, not under the car surely?

Cheers.