Braided Fuel Hose Failure

[mark030358]

Hi,
Just a note to remind people to check their fuel hoses on a regular basis.

Started my car the other day to a strong smell of petrol, which turned out to be a leak on the carb fule hose and a bad one at that. Note sure if its age or fuel that has caused the leak.

So please check, I was very very lucky.

cheers
mark

[Elanintheforest]

I had that last year, and it turned out that the hose was 20 years old!

Ethanol in petrol kills the old rubber as well, and if stood, really mucks up the petrol pump and webers as well.

I just use V-Power from Shell now with no ethanol, but the premium petrol from Esso and BP is also ethanol-free.

Not that ethanol is completely to blame for the failure of a 20 year old fuel hose!!

Mark

[RichardHawkins]

My fuel hose problem is not entirely relevant but may be interesting.

I live in rural Lincolnshire, we have no gas supply, and oil or bottled gas are the only practical options. I don't fancy a large gas cylinder, so continued with an oil fired heating system as was already installed when we moved here.

Our current boiler was installed 16 years ago. There is a hard copper pipe from the oil stock tank to the boiler, then an isolation/fire safety valve, then a flexible hose to the oil pump that supplies oil under pressure to the burner. When the boiler was about 10 or 11 years old the man who services the boiler thought the flexible hose should be changed (I think he had been on some sort of awareness course). The hose he removed was a simple clear plastic item, which he replaced with an impressive looking stainless braided item. Less than year later the new hose failed, fortunately my wife and I were in the house and were able to mop up a small oil spill. I cut up the failed hose to remove the braid, under the braid was what looked like a simple rubber hose covered in little cracks which would have been visible if they were not covered by stainless braid. I now have the hose changed every year, and always buy the hose from the boiler manufacturer. I don't know much about polymer compatability with fuels, but I have learnt a bit about how insurers think. Using genuine parts when available can be important.

My point is that stainless braided hose cannot be visibly checked for deterioration, and that an uscrupulous supplier can cover up poor hose very easily and sell at a premium. I also wonder why mass market manufacturers don't use braided hose, that is unless they have started using it whilst I wasn't looking.

Richard Hawkins

[mbell]

Another not entirely relevant post

My father-in law recently fell victim so a failed not very old braided hose. This time it was inlet feed to a water heater that lives inside a cupboard in his house. The ensuring water leak resulted in a significant area of wood flooring needing replacing. I haven't seen the cost (for his insurance) but I assume it was well into 5 figures.

The failed hose was similair rubber with steel outer braided, sourced from a reputable plumbing suppliers.

I am generally of the opinion to avoid the braided hoses as it is hard to tell the quality and if they are damaged and need replacing. I do have to confess to having them on the +2 brakes as that was what was available when I needed them and I wasn't aware of the issues at the time. I am assuming the ones offered for brakes are made to a decent quality.

[nmauduit]

indeed, all braided hoses are not the same, one can find them with a wide variety of internal hose material (rubber, nitrile, PTFE etc ), the braided sleeve being mostly for protection against external damage...

[2cams70]

I also wonder why mass market manufacturers don't use braided hose, that is unless they have started using it whilst I wasn't looking.

No never. Even on safety critical items like hydraulic hoses supplying tip truck rams. If you properly route and secure the hose to avoid chafing and you correctly specify the hose compound for the type of liquid, temperature and working pressure there is absolutely no need for braid. It falls into the same usefulness category as 1" exhaust pipes leading into 5" mufflers and exhaust tips.

[Grizzly]

Not just fuel hoses that fail....... recently jumped in the +2 after it been stood for 6 months or so and brake pedal goes to the floor, after a quick inspection we found one of the goodridge braided hoses had disintegrated internally (i'd say it was 15-20 years old??) the scary thing was at first glance it looked in good condition.

Sorry not the best video but you get the idea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHcxrie ... e=youtu.be

So thats my current job, swapping all the brake hoses on the +2 (not with braided hose i might add)

[elanman999]

Chris,
Was that hose PTFE or "rubber".
Just asking as mine are more than that in years.
Cheers
John

[rgh0]

I dont use braided hose anywhere on my cars. i use them in a few locations in professional life where the braided covering reinforces and prevents excessive elongation of the convoluted flexible stainless steel inner. i don't like doing even this and prefer to design the needed flexibility into the piping runs where p[possible

For my cars:
normal rubber fuel rated lines with abrasion protection where needed
normal rubber brake lines with abrasion protection where needed.

I like to be able to see the pressure retaining components so i can see any deterioration.

cheers
Rohan

[Grizzly]

Chris,
Was that hose PTFE or "rubber".
Just asking as mine are more than that in years.
Cheers
John

I couldn't tell you without cutting it up. I just know they are Goodridge and i actually paid quite a lot of money for them thinking they were a fit and forget part.

[Grizzly]

I like to be able to see the pressure retaining components so i can see any deterioration.

cheers
Rohan

I agree, now i have seen one fail first hand it will be the last Braided hose i fit to one of my cars.

[Grizzly]

We have just had a braided fuel line go on the 2 seater..........

So we had this odd issue with the car popping on overrun and kinda holding back when cruising down the duel carriageway at 60ish mph.

The 2 seater hadn't been used for a bit with Covid etc so with the nice weather decided to go for a bit of a run / have a play with it, reversed it out the garage and left it idling to warm up for a couple of minutes, drove off down the road, and got a panicked phone call saying there was a pool of fuel on the drive. Pulled over to find one of the braided fuel lines going from the pump to the carb had split literally dowsing the engine bay in fuel (it used just under 1/4 a tank in 2miles). I didn't even smell fuel until the bonnet was opened.

VERY Lucky it was the hose going to the front carb that failed so it missed the Coil and Dissy etc.

So replaced the pipe with good quality Gates hose and had a look at the damaged braided stuff, seems it's cheap rubber hose (wasn't even reinforced) with stainless over braid, 4 years old with less than 1500 miles on it.

On the upside it seems to run considerably better with the new hose fitted

Hose with the braid removed (sorry for the rubish picture)

[Frogelan]

Interesting points.

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

Secondly, there are some very good quality hoses that no longer use stainless steel braiding but rather Kevlar with PTFE inserts. This is probably also a good idea to avoid electrical "shorts" and those sharp wires that you painfully get into your delicate hands. [Yes, I will now go and check, which go through the car and which are not allowed through].

Thirdly, for brakes (and here I will contradict Rohan - sorry), I believe the idea of the braiding is to avoid expansion under hydraulic pressure ie mushy brakes.

Lastly, Ethanol does have a "cleaning effect" which releases deposits left by standard fuel. However, if the fuel lines and filters are regularly changed, this should not be a major headache.

[mbell]

I wouldn't go any where near one of those pre made braided fuel hoses. Just no way to know the quality of the hose used, very easy to cheap out on the hose.

They would be the first thing I would swap out on any car I bought with them fitted.

Buy decent quality hose and make your own.

[Grizzly]

I have a set of Teflon braided high-pressure hoses on my Track car that are 10 years old and are fine, but as i think we all know rubber braided hoses are just junk. I originally put them on the two-seater as there was limited space around there and didn't want to risk something rubbing through one.

But hey, as i said before i won't be using any more hoses i can't inspect.