I usually just troll around gleaning knowledge from others here
. I hope others can learn from my dilemma
.
My wife was taking my truck (195,000 miles)
to Texas from Colorado, when it suddenly started using a lot of fuel. She stopped in Raton, New Mexico and discovered a fuel leak. Someone pointed her in the direction of a local mechanic (without really understanding the fuel leak) and she drove the truck about a mile to this shop for him to check out. He told her that there was a leak in a fuel line and any further attempt to drive the truck could result in a fire . I spoke to him over the phone and thought he was describing a leak at the fuel filter/water separator bowl. I had changed the fuel heater about a year ago and thought one of the fuel line sleeve (seals) was leaking. I purchased several of each of the various sized sleeve (from International) and headed to New Mexico. Unfortunately, this was not the problem
.
As it turned out, the rigid fuel line which supplies the right bank had a hole in the middle of the line. There is a plastic coated metal clamp (which is barely visible) a little more than halfway back on this line to stabilize it. Over time the hard plastic wore off of the clamp and started wearing on the line. Finally, the wall was weakened to the point where the line failed. Initially, I had a hard time finding the location of the leak because the fuel spray pattern was diminished by the clamp itself. Once I really started probing around, the hole enlarged, and the leaked became much more focused, and began spraying onto the turbo itself. Of course this line was no where to be found on a Friday afternoon in Raton, NM. My wife was supposed to meet some people in Amarillo, TX that day and I was able to contact them. I gave them a part number (because I did remember to bring my factory service manuel ). They were able to find the part, so I picked up my family and continued on. We got the part that evening and I was able to replace it the next day.
This was not a fun part to replace by the road (mechanic would not let me work on the truck on his property-even though he didn't seem to interested in fixing it anyway ). Because of the four inch down-pipe, the exhaust had to be removed to gain clearance to the back fitting.
If you are still reading this long post-popcorn , my point is to occasionally look for these obscure wear points. I have been watching wear points on the right intercooler line and attempted to reroute/ isolate areas where this was noted. When I bought the truck four years ago these were already present. If others have experienced issues like this, I would like to hear about them. I never expected this failure, I honestly had never noted this clamp before. And I do poke around under the hood a fair bit.
If there is not yet a list of these types of issues, maybe one could be created. I Hope this prevents others from roadside repairs .
. I hope others can learn from my dilemma .My wife was taking my truck (195,000 miles)
to Texas from Colorado, when it suddenly started using a lot of fuel. She stopped in Raton, New Mexico and discovered a fuel leak. Someone pointed her in the direction of a local mechanic (without really understanding the fuel leak) and she drove the truck about a mile to this shop for him to check out. He told her that there was a leak in a fuel line and any further attempt to drive the truck could result in a fire . I spoke to him over the phone and thought he was describing a leak at the fuel filter/water separator bowl. I had changed the fuel heater about a year ago and thought one of the fuel line sleeve (seals) was leaking. I purchased several of each of the various sized sleeve (from International) and headed to New Mexico. Unfortunately, this was not the problem .As it turned out, the rigid fuel line which supplies the right bank had a hole in the middle of the line. There is a plastic coated metal clamp (which is barely visible) a little more than halfway back on this line to stabilize it. Over time the hard plastic wore off of the clamp and started wearing on the line. Finally, the wall was weakened to the point where the line failed. Initially, I had a hard time finding the location of the leak because the fuel spray pattern was diminished by the clamp itself. Once I really started probing around, the hole enlarged, and the leaked became much more focused, and began spraying onto the turbo itself. Of course this line was no where to be found on a Friday afternoon in Raton, NM. My wife was supposed to meet some people in Amarillo, TX that day and I was able to contact them. I gave them a part number (because I did remember to bring my factory service manuel
). They were able to find the part, so I picked up my family and continued on. We got the part that evening and I was able to replace it the next day. This was not a fun part to replace by the road (mechanic would not let me work on the truck on his property-even though he didn't seem to interested in fixing it anyway
). Because of the four inch down-pipe, the exhaust had to be removed to gain clearance to the back fitting.If you are still reading this long post-popcorn , my point is to occasionally look for these obscure wear points. I have been watching wear points on the right intercooler line and attempted to reroute/ isolate areas where this was noted. When I bought the truck four years ago these were already present. If others have experienced issues like this, I would like to hear about them. I never expected this failure, I honestly had never noted this clamp before. And I do poke around under the hood a fair bit.
If there is not yet a list of these types of issues, maybe one could be created. I Hope this prevents others from roadside repairs
.
