has anyone replaced their fuel lines?

ross255 · Aug 21, 2006

Hi,

My fuel lines are getting a bit rusty at the rear of the car.

I plan on replacing them, has anyone else doen this yet?
What did you use, oem fuel pipe, or is there another solution?

I do remember seeing a car (not a porsche) that had its fuel lines replaced with copper lines, can anyone see anything wrong with this?

And how do you get around the fittings which are crimped on the ends of the line, does anyone make a compression fitting for them.

any replies would be helpfull, Thanks

Guest · Aug 21, 2006

the cheapest way to do it is the copper tubing , there are two different thickness of pipe on the 944 5/16th and 3/8th i recently did mine , the trickiest part was around the torsion bar , but well worth it , i bought my pipes from this seller on ebay ,

legselevenautoparts

i bought the unions from my local car part stockist (roadrunners) , cant remember how much they was each male/ female , but less than £20 for the unions ,,

the flexy pipes i removed and took to a local hydrolics firm and they cost around £40 to make new ,

,, steel pipes was not an option for me as i had no way of flaring the ends ,

using the copper option i made a few mistakes flaring the ends but soon got the hang of the Flaring tool , now i have a car with no drips smells and it seems to running a lot smoother ....

Whilst i was at it i also did the entire brake lines as well and why not i made a new fuel tank strap from some alluminium

)

Dont know what steel pipes would have cost to do at a garage but reckon they would rub there hands with glee and suck on there tongues when they so ooo thats gonna cost ya

saved a fortune did it myself .,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and the car strolled through the mot and got praised by the mot testers for a neat job ,,[:-][

][8|]

sawood12 · Aug 21, 2006

Porsche have now seen the light and made the OEM pipe a three piece item rather than a one peice item. Unfortunately this doesn't help you first time round as you will still need to replace the whole fuel pipe with the three piece pipe but look at it this way - in another 15 - 20yrs or so when they need replacing again it'll be alot easier and cheaper.

There is alot of speculation about having to drop the gearbox to replace the pipes but this is not necessary as two specialists I know of don't do this. They say it's a fiddly job but quicker (therefore cheaper) and their prefferred method of replacing the pipes.

TTM · Aug 21, 2006

ORIGINAL: sawood12
Porsche have now seen the light and made the OEM pipe a three piece item rather than a one peice item.
There is alot of speculation about having to drop the gearbox to replace the pipes but this is not necessary as two specialists I know of don't do this.

Interesting.
A relative had to drop the rear cross member as he could not figure it out otherwise. That was with the one-piece OEM pipe he got from the OPC four months ago. Has the three-piece item been available for long ?

944cabby · Aug 21, 2006

ORIGINAL: sawood12

Porsche have now seen the light and made the OEM pipe a three piece item rather than a one peice item. Unfortunately this doesn't help you first time round as you will still need to replace the whole fuel pipe with the three piece pipe but look at it this way - in another 15 - 20yrs or so when they need replacing again it'll be alot easier and cheaper.

There is alot of speculation about having to drop the gearbox to replace the pipes but this is not necessary as two specialists I know of don't do this. They say it's a fiddly job but quicker (therefore cheaper) and their prefferred method of replacing the pipes.

Any ideas how much the three piece sections cost?

Andy Duncan · Aug 21, 2006

I've replaced the pipes without dropping the rear suspension unit, using original 1 piece pipes. But you do need good height at the back of the car to be able to articulate the pipes into position. There is a certain amount of flexibility in the pipes that will allow you to get them in place.

The 3 piece replacements should be ideal.

I have seen non standard compression jointed copper pipework and some of the workmanship has been very poor. Whilst Porsche are expensive their fuel pipes are extremely robust and will last longer.

andy

sawood12 · Aug 21, 2006

ORIGINAL: 944cabby

ORIGINAL: sawood12

Porsche have now seen the light and made the OEM pipe a three piece item rather than a one peice item. Unfortunately this doesn't help you first time round as you will still need to replace the whole fuel pipe with the three piece pipe but look at it this way - in another 15 - 20yrs or so when they need replacing again it'll be alot easier and cheaper.

There is alot of speculation about having to drop the gearbox to replace the pipes but this is not necessary as two specialists I know of don't do this. They say it's a fiddly job but quicker (therefore cheaper) and their prefferred method of replacing the pipes.

Click to expand...

Any ideas how much the three piece sections cost?

I had a fax from my OPC with the prices but can't find it! If I recall correctly they were around the £60 to £80 mark for each peice with a few bits and bobs like unions and brackets etc. that were a few quid each. I believe the total cost was not too far adrift from the original one-piece pipes which I was told you couldn't get anymore. Luckily in my case the corrosion on my pipes was only cosmetic so has a way to go yet before it's an MOT failure so I just cleaned them up and gave them a good coating of coppaslip to try to protect the pipes and stave off corrosion so there was no need to replace them.

Fen · Aug 22, 2006

Mine was replaced with the OE pipe last summer - I thought one piece, but thinking about it the section up to the tank itself seemed to be optional (we replaced it) so maybe it was 3 piece. I was working on something at the front at the time and didn't pay a lot of attention to be honest.

We had the beam off to replace the mounts and bearings and re-indexed it on the bench and the gearbox hanging loose as the torque tube and engine were out so it was relatively easy, but still a lot of swearing to get to the top of the tank I seem to recall.

Diver944 · Aug 22, 2006

My S2 had the new multi part fuel lines back in January. The parts were £51, £61, £56, £63 with another £20 for connectors and new clamps.

Total labour was 9 hours but this also incuded new brake lines and an idle control valve at the same time

I went for genuine parts because the originals had lasted for 17 years and I intend keeping the car for a looooooooong time [

]

944psi · Aug 22, 2006

There is an alternative and some would say more risky way of replacing your corroded fuel lines. I came from a position of a) not wanting to shell out nearly £300 replacing fuel lines that were for the most part uncorroded, and b) not wanting to remove the rear axle. I also didn't know enough about my car to know whether it was worth 'doing the job properly'.

I followed someone elses lead and replaced the corroded portions with rubber pipes with swaged brass connections. So far I have had no problems, leaks or odours.

I'm not advocating doing it this way but before embarking on this approach I spoke to lots of people who had taken this approach with favourable results. You have to decide whether to do it properly, i.e. the solid lines, do a complete bodge like this or take a considered approach like I did.

After removing the rusty lines I trotted off to Pirtek where I had two lines made up. The 8mm return pipe is a simple compression fitting that goes direct to the top of the tank.

The 10mm supply line has a compression fitting at the hard-pipe end and an 90 degree elbow at the fuel filter end. It is important to get this pipe long enough and not too long!

Here is the end that attached to the hard pipe. It is a compression fitting.

And here is the fuel filter end

A new insert replaced the original one in the end of the fuel filter to allow the elbow to connect.

I staggered the cutting of the metal lines to allow the compression joints to be as close to each other and the floor pan as possible. The pipes are secured to the floorpan using the original brackets but with modified rubber protectors.

The filter end looks like this (complete with a new pump-filter pipe)

The pipe that has been used has quite a thick wall - I cannot remember the exact specs but its working pressure is 28 bar with a burst pressure of 112 bar. I have considered protecting the pipes with an aluminum shield to prevent any damage but so far haven't!

My costs were as follows

Pirtek 41.31 - includes rubber pipe, brass fittings, swaging, olives etc
OPC 26.13 - pipe from fuel pump to filter (22.73) and washers, cap nut for the fuel filter

Only time will tell if I made the right choice.

Phil