Fuel line crack?need help;new to this

[Claude]

Hi my name is Claude, I'm new to this forum and have not really introduced myself to any so just a little info;From Maryland,Drive a Red 92 Festiva, love it.
Okay my issue(well the biggest one) is that everytime my gas gets below a half a tank, the car starts acting real funny, sputtering, hesitating, stalling out at some points and it lurches back when trying to accelerate. I know what the problem is (at least this is what I have been told and makes perfect sense)Apparently there is a leak somewhere in the fuel line ( i think or whatever is running fuel to the engine)there is some sort of hole that is making it hard for fuel to be circulated but only when the tank goes below half a tank. It was explained to me that it is like drinking a soda with a hole in the straw; when the cup is full and the hole is submerged below the fluid, the soda sucks up fine with no issue but when the hole is not submerged and is above the level of soda it becomes difficult to suck up the soda. So this is the same problem I am having except its gas not soda and a fuel line not a straw. Any ideas from anyone? I am not very smart when it comes to cars so any advice will help. thanks guys

[batstiva]

Okay, for starters, welcome to FF.COM. Quick question, do you smell or see a gas leak? Anywhere? In the lines, or around the tank? The reason I ask is it is fairly common for these tanks to rust and leak at the seam around the center of the tank. It's possible, depending on the size of any leak you may have, that you're actually sucking air into the fuel lines, and in a sense, vapor locking your fuel system. Also possible that you have crud in your tank that gets sucked up at the halfway level. If you flip up your backseat, and the carpet that's under it, you will see an access point to the fuel tank, you will need to remove that cover, and disconnect the electrical connection in order to look down into the tank and see if there's anything other than gas floating around in there. Also a good time to look at the pump and the sock, to make sure they are not too crapped up.

Also, would advice listing your location in MD, someone close may be able to help you out.

[Claude]

Thanks for the advice, yes im fairly certain there is a crack in the fuel line and I am trying to figure out the easiest way to resolve this, im guessing it cant be patched right? so if i get a replacement does anyone know if there are other cars that have compatible fuel lines for my car(92 fest) because there arent any festivas close here at a junkyard so maybe a more common car would be better for me to get the part from or is there somehwere i can order the part? and what would need to be done?

[Pu241]

Caude,
The crack has to be on the pipe after the fuel pump, which is inside the fuel tank, but before it leaves the fuel pump/sender assembly.
If you had a crack/leak in the fuel line after the fuel leaves the tank you'd smell it and it wouldn't matter if your tank were full or not, it would be starved for fuel.
If there was a leak in the fuel return line, you'd just have really bad MPG and you couldn't help but smell the fuel.
The straw analogy is correct though.
Except, the hole/crack has to be pump/sender pipe.
All is not lost though.
Just need to put the back seat in its forward position, back against the front seats.
lift the carpet under where the back seat would nominally be.
Behind the driver side you will find an access port and electric connectors.
Unbolt the plate under which you will see the top of the fuel pump/sender assembly.
Extinguish all smoking materials and sources of ignition
Disconnect the electrical connector and the fuel output and return lines.
It is held down with 8 Phillips head screws.
Might want to hit the with some PB Blaster before you strip the screws trying to get 20 yr old screws out. Better safe than sorry!
You will have to finesse it out of the gas tank very carefully so as not to damage the sender float.
After you have it out, inspect the pipe/tube that is connected to the pump.
If it's not too bad, you can use a gasoline resistant epoxy to patch the crack or hole.

[Claude]

thanks I will give it a try, that is not the pressing issue right now tho, i seem to be having electrical problems as well, my car died in the street so i jumped it and it was able to run for a bit then died so i jumped it for longer and i parked it here at my work and am now chargin the battery. I looked the battery is new and the belt is still on the alternator..i dont know i started another thread for this problem if you want to read it I appreciate all the help man

[Pu241]

I have and replied to it!

[Claude]

so what part do i need to buy to correct this. or whatg epoxy should i buy do i need a newe pump to get the part or waht is the name of the part to which you are refering

[Pu241]

Claude, see your [WTB] post for details.

[Claude]

replaced the fuel pump and assembly, still didnt fix the problem so that ruled out the theory of there being a hole in the line. So I siphoned out the gas and got to the bottom and sam that the tank was grimy with what looked like mud. I cleaned out the tank by hand and removed all the lose stuff floating around and voila. problem fixed. she now drives better than ever and can go all the way down to empty so just thought I should post this in case anyone else has the same problem. If your call acts funny and stalls and sputters after a certain level of gas or maybe just in general you may just have build up in the tank that needs to be cleaned out and a new filter wont hurt either.

[25Horseplay]

Glad to hear its back up and running!!

[GenevaDirt]

replaced the fuel pump and assembly, still didnt fix the problem so that ruled out the theory of there being a hole in the line. So I siphoned out the gas and got to the bottom and sam that the tank was grimy with what looked like mud. I cleaned out the tank by hand and removed all the lose stuff floating around and voila. problem fixed. she now drives better than ever and can go all the way down to empty so just thought I should post this in case anyone else has the same problem. If your call acts funny and stalls and sputters after a certain level of gas or maybe just in general you may just have build up in the tank that needs to be cleaned out and a new filter wont hurt either.

glad you got it fixed but you did not have to siphon the gas....there is a drain plug in the bottom of the tank that you could have removed....just an fyi for next time.

[Claude]

yea does it look like a bolt? i saw that but i didnt know if it was a plug or what my haynes just said some models have a plug and i looked but i just saw this bolt looking thing that was rusted very well onto the tank so i didnt want to bother trying to figure out if I could get it off or if even it was a drain...

[Pu241]

The drain plug would have made things easier, but to do the job right you'd have had to pull the pump/sender assembly anyway.
With the drain plug removed you could have flushed out the tank easier.
Just happy you found and were able to fix the problem.
Helps everyone that you reported back, as this tell us another way things can go wrong.
I'm assuming that the vehicle must have sat for an extended period of time before you acquired it?

[Claude]

yea it sat for many months so that created the problems it has, its a really good car and ive started to rub out the big problems so now im on to audio enhancement and performance too, which i will be referring to the professionals her at ff.com for advice