Last thirstday I drove my Subaru Libero (Domingo E12-FA8 from year '97) van after one day parked, as usual, for few km, just the time to warm it up. When I stopped, I smell gasoline outside, but I couldn't see anything on the ground. The following morning, after a dozen km, the smell was intense, and I saw a leaking from above the rear left wheel. I hadn't the time to look better yet. Anyone has comments or suggestion about it? I hope I can fix it quickly, without the need of very special spares...
Most probably a bad fuel line. The “rubber” ones degrade over time. And, if you live some where with ethanol blended fuel, the “rubbers used in older cars were not always formulated to resist the alcohol, and would break down. When the town I was living in first went to ethanol I had to do a bunch of tricks with my rigs to keep them running. My 69-F250 wasn’t too bad, changed out three lengths of soft hose, and put a new needle and seat in the carb. My Car was a different matter. It had a premium fuel tank, which had been lined with something to keep it from rusting. I ended up with a bank of four really big fuel filters in the trunk, set up in parallel, that I had to change once a week. After a couple of months, all the lining had sloughed off, and I was back in business. Lesson learned, was that the ethanol fuels don’t work well with vehicles not made for them.
Update! In the area of fuel pipe, over the rear wheel there is a fan fixed to a holder which is part of main frame. Such holder was being corroded by rust, and the fan felt down on the pipes, damaging one of them. Cost for the repairment was mainly for restoring the frame, where the rust damaged it, letting the fan holder fall down. The only sparepart needed was a piece of fuel pipe, the rest was grinder and welding work I do not have any picture, but I plan to open the engine cover, and take some.
