A Sobering Post

[944 man]

http://forums.tipec.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=15891

I was admiring pictures of his very clean Classic Grey interior earlier today, and now its a smouldering wreck.

Check your fuel pipes.

 

[Riverside]

That looked like a nice example, pity.

I came close to this earlier this year with mine; fortunately my wife smelled fuel from the wheel well while it was parked on the drive.

Behind the OSF wheel arch liner there are several plain steel tubes for the brake lines & two for the high pressure fuel feed & low pressure return. They are held on to the inner wing by rubber covered metal brackets that are dirt traps. My fuel lines had corroded unseen behind one of these brackets & one was so weak that once removed from the car, it just took a small tweak for it to snap altogether.

Replacement fuel lines aren't cheap, and come in four parts - front & rear for each line. The fronts include the armoured flexi hoses that go over the exhaust from wing to fuel rail. The original ones are single piece each from front to rear.

I bought only the front two & connected them to the rear parts with hose (my rear lines had already been replaced with hose a few years ago). Ideally the whole lot should be changed.

I'll say again, it was impossible to visually tell how bad the corrosion was with the fuel line in place, even with the wheel arch liner removed.

 

[944Scott]

I'm having that wheel arch liner off tonight to rub down and paint the rusty brake pipe (and replace the pipe clamp) so I will be inspecting the fuel lines carefully too.

 

[Mike_Pollock]

Really bad story and feel for him.

I had a lucky escape just after I got the 2.7. Just a 5 mile trip to drop my daughter off, 400 yards from her house waiting to turn right, slight smell of petrol, stopped to let her out, still smelt petrol, popped bonnet to see a large jet of petrol coming out of the flexi hose rail to FPR, directly on to the exhaust. Recovery home!

If your hoses are the ridged type I would get them inspected - I believe they are the subject of a recall.

Mine had an engine swap some years ago, and although shows as having had the recall work done, the new engine probably hadn't.

 

[j4mou]

Gutted! That looked mint

 

[TTM]

Makes me feel really sad!

I always carry a fire extinguisher in mine, heard of too many similar stories in the past. That is I think the first thing to get when buying a 944.

 

[944 man]

2kg powder for knock-down and 2l AFFF for cooling in mine. My Kevlar & Nomex gloves have gone walkabout though... I prefer a 4kg powder extinguisher but mounting it isnt easy, even using plumbed in mounts.

 

[PAUL RUDDY]

Although I knew I had checked mine approx 6 months ago I decided for the time it takes to whip the liner out I would do it again.

The white plastic top hats that hold the pipe clamps in place proved a swine to remove but eventually they were off, pleased to report all looks well, with the pipe work mainly still in its olive green colour, the rubber part of the clamp was removed and again all appears well.

After a thorough wipe over with WD40 the pipes have been liberally greased and the liner replaced.

Cheers, Paul

 

[simkin911]

Good job Paul. I watched an old wedding car catch fire last week. Wasn't a pretty sight and the driver didn't get far with an extinguisher the size of a hairspray can!