Surely a fuel hose should last longer than 7 years and 70k miles? I just did a 275 mile journey with poor fuel economy and the occasional smell of diesel in standing traffic to find, when I got home, that diesel was peeing all over the top of my engine. Thank god it wasn't a petrol car or it would have been a disaster.

 

Anyone else had anything similar?

 

 

Nick

Hard to say really, stuff wears at different rates on different cars. At least it's an easy fix though. If I were had to replace a hose, I'd hope it was that one. It's just a bit of flexible fuel hose, so even if you went to Halfords for some, you'd be spending less than a tenner. Pair of pliers and a stanley knife and you'll have it done in ten minutes. 

6 minutes ago, StevesTruck said:

Hard to say really, stuff wears at different rates on different cars. At least it's an easy fix though. If I were had to replace a hose, I'd hope it was that one. It's just a bit of flexible fuel hose, so even if you went to Halfords for some, you'd be spending less than a tenner. Pair of pliers and a stanley knife and you'll have it done in ten minutes. 

Already done it. £3.40 from Halfords (with trade card) and, like you say, 10 mins. But I'm just surprised. I would expect them to be designed to last 30 years or more. Like I said, if that had been a petrol car spraying petrol over a hot engine on the motorway, it could have been a disaster, so you'd imagine they'd consider that in the materials used. Hopefully I'm just unlucky. And I now have enough spare hose to do more

The Ethanol content in Diesel fuel I believe has risen considerably since your vehicle was manufactured, perhaps others ca confirm.

 

It is unrealistic to expect any fuel hose to last 30 years even without the additional Ethanol, granted many will but many wont hence the MTBF  measure (mean time between failure) 7 years is not that premature, all cars will have had a few items fail in that time which go on for years on other vehicles, all of them would warrant someone (without an understanding of MTBF) saying "this should not fail at this age/mileage", you read it pretty much every day on this forum.

 

Thanks for the heads up though, I had not heard of it before, yours might be the first of many, I will give all mine a precautionary squeeze at each oil change.

12 minutes ago, NikTheGeek said:

if that had been a petrol car spraying petrol over a hot engine on the motorway,

 

Not according to the letter from VOSA which was posted on here yesterday in response to exactly that, no danger, nothing to see here, move on..............

 

That was aimed at VOSA and not yourself I hope you understand!

I have had a very young fuel hose look very old and dodgy, though on a petrol car.  It was sourced at a local motor factors under two years ago during an engine change, when I couldn't get the original to reseal at one end.  I spotted it looking cracked and horrible this summer, only 18 months after it was fitted.

Will nip out and get fresh piccies to compare with ones taken then.

I 'kinda' convinced myself that it was just the outer layer, and that it wasn't in any great danger of leaking.

Pic from summer:

 

New pic. The hose has all the expected markings, SAE? number etc. I seem to remember 

 

A rubber hose isn't going to be made to be safe to use for 30 years, I don't think any part of a car would be, especially a flexible peice that's been bent to shape.