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All the time I was traveling to and from Hershey I could smell gas any time I stepped out of the car. John and Brian even commented on it one evening, but I could never see any drips on the ground and the engine compartment was always dry. I had been meaning to check up front, around the FI fuel pump, but only got around to it this weekend. Once I got the car jacked up and started looking around I really couldn't see anything suspicious. I ran the pump and still there were no wet hoses and in fact all the hoses were new German external hoses that had to have been less than 2 years old, but more than a year old. Finally, with the pump running I started poking around. Everything was fine until I moved the little damper/muffler that sits in front of the axle beam. Moving it just the right way shot a stream straight out that looked just like the stream out of a water pistol. The odd thing was that the way that I had to bend the hose to make it leak was the opposite of how I would have expected. I replaced all the German hose under there that was under pressure with 8mm american made hose, and also routed some of the hoses better. Once I was done, I cut off the leaky end and cut it open to see what had happened to it. The results of this are interesting. The hose had numerous small cracks in the rubber right over the area where the damper fitting was bulged out to help it seal. In other words this was where the hose was stretched the most. The hose did NOT fail under the clamp, and it did NOT fail at the end of the hose fitting. It failed at the peak of the expanded section of the hose fitting. I've taken a photo and posted it on Russ's web site where you can see it. In this photo the last inch of the hose has been cut open and is shown with the original hose axis vertical. Note the multiple cracks in the rubber hose liner where it was asked to stretch too much. I've reduced the size of the photo to make it download easily, but I think you can still easily see many of the cracks in the rubber. http://classicvw.org/gallery/jadney/hose The original hose end is at the top of the photo and the length of the hose used to extend downward. You can see a change in the texture of the hose where the hose fitting ended; the top part where it fit over the fitting is shiny while the lower part is matte. Note that the cracks are parallel to the old tube axis and that they are above the point where the fitting ended, exactly where the tube fitting was bulged out. This failed hose was good quality 7mm German hose. I have always felt that the 7mm hose was too small for this application and I think this is the proof. I have been using 8mm/5/16" hose for years with much better results. Even though this 7mm hose is sold for this application I recommend that you NOT use it. Don't use the 7.5mm hose that is somewhat better, either. Use 8mm/5/16" hose and you'll be much happier. The 8mm hose does not have to stretch nearly as much to fit over the hose fittings, and yet it still has no trouble sealing. -- ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Shameless link for search engines: http://listarchive.type3.org ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~