VW Beetles catch fire. Why?

helbus · 2009-06-01T12:22:55+00:00

Repeat after me. Replace your fuel hose regularly. Replace your fuel hose regularly. Replace your fuel hose regularly. Replace your fuel hose regularly. Replace your fuel hose regularly. Replace your fuel hose regularly. Replace your fuel hose regularly. Replace your fuel hose regularly. I service and maintain our cars pretty well, and I do know about the fuel lines being an item to be regularly replaced. I was driving the Beetle the other day and smelt petrol through the heater. I was just home, so I looked under the engine lid, and noticed the fuel hose to the carby was wet with petrol. It sits about 2cm above the distributor which creates sparks to make petrol into fire. I went to the local VW parts supplier and bought the proper fuel hose that is the right size for the Beetle. I changed the hose, and all good. Inspection of the hose I took off show age cracks on the end, a result of age hardening. Now some items of common discussion and the outcomes. - Change the hose regularly. The one from the metal line to pump and the one from pump to carby. I would suggest 5 years. - Use only high quality hose of the correct size. Some cheap generic fuel hose is often too big, some are too small - I would not recommend a fuel filter be placed in the engine bay. Plastic ones especially are prone to failure in the hot VW engine bay, and it is two more joins with a possibility of failing. Under the car up near the fuel tank or before the firewall would be safer. - I will add that fuel pumps and carbies have barbs for the hose to attach, and it has been known for the barbs to come out of them. Someone will now add some more info on fuel system barb retaining procedures. - A fire extinguisher in the vehicle may help, however be aware that opening the engine lid on a Beetle on fire will allow a rush of air and oxygen to get to the fire, so care needs to be taken to not have a fire in your face.

i dont know why the purists go all googoogaga over stock braided hose
was fine 40 years ago but is shit by todays standards

i dug out some various hoses i had laying around the sarvo just to show what im talking about

stock Subaru EFI hose
generic off the shelf 1/4" fuel hose
and german cloth braided VW

the generic stuff has a pretty similar profile to subaru, 2 layer with internal reinforcing, both have a wall thickness of about 3-4mm

the vw stuff has no reinforcing, a much thinner single layer wall and is only about 2mm thick
not to mention the fact that the cloth braiding only hides the perishing which doesnt show till its to late.....