1988 340 fuel leak?
 

Hi folks,
Filled the tank to the brim today as I am going on a long drive tomorrow,Noticed a strong smell of fuel when I parked up at work and heavy drip of fuel just behind the rear OS wheel.Found this was petrol,The heavy trickle then turned into and steady drip and after about 30 minutes stopped completely.Could this have been due to me over filling? or is there something loose around fuel tank? any ideas appreciated..

Regards
Mo

breather
 

mo, check the breather pipe connected to the tank.

Hi Paul,Had a quick glimpse underneath and saw a rubber pipe about a inch in diameter holding within it 2 other smaller pipes,the out pipe was soaked in petrol,Would this be the breather?

Hi S60......That sounds like the one.........hopefully now the excess is out .....the problem should now have sorted it's self out........maybe next time don't fill to the absolute max. ...........guess you found a cheap service station...lol....happy driving

Dave

Hi Dave,Yes indeed the problem seems to have sorted itself out theres been no drips for last 90+ mins,fuel was pretty cheap at 93p /ltr LOL but Think I forgot I was not driving the S60 where it takes ages to fill up where as the 340 only takles half the amount of fuel.Another lesson learned today ;)

Great one....all sorted......

It's not sorted at all !! you need to renew the breather pipes ! If you park on a hill or at an angle its going to start coming out again .. signs of fuel leaks are dangerous and will fail an MOT .. The fabric covered breather hose will be full of cracks and could even part company .. Replace it with some decent rubber 10 mm ID fuel hose and may as well do the small hoses at the same time they have the same problem 6 mm ID fuel hose will sort them ..

There you go S60..........another option put forward....hope that sorts it for you.......you could always try it on a slope/hill/angle just to see..all the best

Dave

340s are pretty good at this, I wouldn't put more than £20 in mine for a while until I fixed it. It's not an easy one to get too, but well worth doing. As with the under bonnet stuff, don't replace with cloth covered, the modern cloth covered lasts about 18months before perishing. Get some injection hose of the same int diameter Mo, and it'll last for ages.

If I remember rightly - it's been at least 10 years since I had my 340,(1986 340 1.7) there is a small expansion tank at the rear of the car mounted near the filler pipe and connected to the main fuel tank by a couple of hoses. The idea is that if the main tank is full and the fuel expands due to an increase in temperature. Unfortunately the hoses eventually perish and leak. The problem only shows itself when the tank is nearly full. If you replace all the hoses to the expansion tank and any other perished ones too with fuel grade hose, that ought to cure it. It worked for me when I had exactly the same problem

Hope this is of some help.

Martin