Braided Fuel Hose Failure

[Grizzly]

realistically 5 years is the reliable life span of hoses. That is a lot longer than most handbags ladies

I hadn't thought about the service life of hoses to be honest, just had a look on the Gates website and they recommend 90000 miles or 10-year service life on their hoses.

Gates make good hoses and belts but i thought that was about the norm?? but hey not my field of expertise so could be wrong.

[Mike Ostrov]

Sadly, this is a most common issue here. We have 10% Ethanol in California and a max of 91 RON octane in the San Francisco Bay Area. For the past 40 years I make up my own Aeroquip Teflon lined stainless external outer braided lines for my Climax Elites and another Lotus cars. Dash 3 for brake, dash 4 for oil and dash 6 for gas. Not complicated,but does take some practice to cut the line with a small chop saw, install the brass olive type fitting over the Teflon inner liner and under the stainless ends which are very sharp and tighten the outer fittings. All are first water tested at 175 psi from my air compressor and then tested at 1500 psi with a .625 master cylinder and Glycerin gauge in the water bucket. Shrink wrap can be installed if you are unhappy with the shinny exterior. The fittings are AN 37 degree flare and the hard lines are also stainless steel with a single flare as required. Since my installations are fresh, I use only DOT 5 Silicone fluid. Not for circuit use and it has some limitations. Might be new topic? So, please be cautions with any older rubber lined hose or even a new installation. Cheers. Mike.

[Dellortofan]

The better quality hosing has the braided support in the middle.
All the cheap /fail early stuff has the braid externally. Especially vacuum hose (use gates diesel spill hose).
Codan etc branded and rated and dated is a better bet.
Disappointed about Goodrich brake hoses mentioned now. as I recently got some...