Leak in gas line

[MannyG20]

So, I was out last night and got into my Bronco to drive home and there was a strong smell of gas around the car. Of course I dismissed it as someone else’s problem and got in and drove away. By the time I got to the edge of the parking lot I knew it was my problem. I drove home hoping I wasn’t going to become a modern day Pinto and become this rolling fireball.
I got home and checked under the hood and didn’t see anything and then checked under the Bronco and there was a 3x3 foot round puddle of gas on the ground and an almost steady stream gas of gas coming from my fuel line. I crawled under the vehicle and found a pin-prick sized hole in my line. The gas was still flowing out fairly strong.
I soon had gas running down my hands I tried to stop the leak with my thumb. I called to my wife and had her bring me a piece of duct tape with a blob of Flex Seal paint on it (desperate times call for desperate measures). I slapped this on the fuel line as best as I could and in the span of a few seconds my hands were now covered with gas and Flex Seal paint. I put two more pieces of duct tape on the leak and squeezed down with my hand - I should have put on a pair of latex gloves but too late now. After about five minutes I noticed my free hand was beginning to get tacky as the flex seal dried. After another 5 minutes I was a human piece of fly paper.
anyway, the tape/flex seal did stop the leak (it might have stopped on its own but I had to try something) and I didn’t have gas running down my driveway all night.
I drove the Bronco into the dealer this morning and left it. It did leak again - I guess the pressure from the fuel pump blew out my pitiful patch.
my Bronco has now been at the dealer every month in 2023.

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[Ford Motor Company]

So, I was out last night and got into my Bronco to drive home and there was a strong smell of gas around the car. Of course I dismissed it as someone else’s problem and got in and drove away. By the time I got to the edge of the parking lot I knew it was my problem. I drove home hoping I wasn’t going to become a modern day Pinto and become this rolling fireball.
I got home and checked under the hood and didn’t see anything and then checked under the Bronco and there was a 3x3 foot round puddle of gas on the ground and an almost steady stream gas of gas coming from my fuel line. I crawled under the vehicle and found a pin-prick sized hole in my line. The gas was still flowing out fairly strong.
I soon had gas running down my hands I tried to stop the leak with my thumb. I called to my wife and had her bring me a piece of duct tape with a blob of Flex Seal paint on it (desperate times call for desperate measures). I slapped this on the fuel line as best as I could and in the span of a few seconds my hands were now covered with gas and Flex Seal paint. I put two more pieces of duct tape on the leak and squeezed down with my hand - I should have put on a pair of latex gloves but too late now. After about five minutes I noticed my free hand was beginning to get tacky as the flex seal dried. After another 5 minutes I was a human piece of fly paper.
anyway, the tape/flex seal did stop the leak (it might have stopped on its own but I had to try something) and I didn’t have gas running down my driveway all night.
I drove the Bronco into the dealer this morning and left it. It did leak again - I guess the pressure from the fuel pump blew out my pitiful patch.
my Bronco has now been at the dealer every month in 2023.

Good afternoon. Can you please send over a message with your VIN and the name/location of your local Ford dealer? I would like to take a closer look at your gas line issue on my end.

 

[SVTLightning]

Good afternoon. Can you please send over a message with your VIN and the name/location of your local Ford dealer? I would like to take a closer look at your gas line issue on my end.

Here, I zoomed the picture in for you.

 

[MannyG20]

So the dealer finally got around to looking at this today. They say the leak was caused by an ‘impact strike’ on the gas line and thus it is not covered under warranty and it will be $900. The actual ‘hole’ in the line was in the section that is tucked on top of the tank and is not exposed to the roadway.
I don’t ever go to dealers and really haven’t had a car that is covered by a manufacturer’s warranty so any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

 

[DefNotBuddyLee]

You sir, may have a long road ahead of you. If it was a section of line on top of the tank, I would press that issue (how was there an impact strike from road debris that got above the gas tank and had enough energy to damage the fuel line). Maybe they will say something that makes sense. Ultimately, they have likely made their mind up and even if you presented video evidence they would not budge. Your options:
-Take it to another dealer and ask them to re-assess (be honest, they will be able to see the claim denial from the other dealer).
-Claim the damage on your auto insurance and pay the deductible. There is a possibility that your auto claims adjuster comes in and says that the damage could not be caused by road debris and that it is a manufacturer defect. You can then take that info back to the dealer. They may change their mind, or you may just have everyone pointing the finger at the other guy.

I was unfortunately in a similar situation long ago and had taken to another mechanic for a second opinion. They confirmed what I thought (part failure), wrote a letter about how they came to that conclusion, and even called that dealer to talk it through (way more than I would expect any mechanic to do, but then again they got upset when the service rep dismissed them and showed they didn't know much about cars in the conversation). Dealer would not budge. I took to another dealer who reviewed and approved the repair.
If they hadn't, my plan was to cancel my Ford extended warranty and use that money for the repair and to purchase a 3rd party extended warranty that doesn't rely on Ford techs worrying about internal warranty repair audits.

 

[bigbmc26]

So, I was out last night and got into my Bronco to drive home and there was a strong smell of gas around the car. Of course I dismissed it as someone else’s problem and got in and drove away. By the time I got to the edge of the parking lot I knew it was my problem. I drove home hoping I wasn’t going to become a modern day Pinto and become this rolling fireball.
I got home and checked under the hood and didn’t see anything and then checked under the Bronco and there was a 3x3 foot round puddle of gas on the ground and an almost steady stream gas of gas coming from my fuel line. I crawled under the vehicle and found a pin-prick sized hole in my line. The gas was still flowing out fairly strong.
I soon had gas running down my hands I tried to stop the leak with my thumb. I called to my wife and had her bring me a piece of duct tape with a blob of Flex Seal paint on it (desperate times call for desperate measures). I slapped this on the fuel line as best as I could and in the span of a few seconds my hands were now covered with gas and Flex Seal paint. I put two more pieces of duct tape on the leak and squeezed down with my hand - I should have put on a pair of latex gloves but too late now. After about five minutes I noticed my free hand was beginning to get tacky as the flex seal dried. After another 5 minutes I was a human piece of fly paper.
anyway, the tape/flex seal did stop the leak (it might have stopped on its own but I had to try something) and I didn’t have gas running down my driveway all night.
I drove the Bronco into the dealer this morning and left it. It did leak again - I guess the pressure from the fuel pump blew out my pitiful patch.
my Bronco has now been at the dealer every month in 2023.

Bringing this old thread back up. Did the dealer cover the leak under warranty? I found a similar leak last this morning. My Bronco has been sitting in my driveway for a week as were out of town for New Years. I came home to a puddle of gas under the truck. I have an appointment to drop it off at the dealership tomorrow morning.

Can't really see where the gas is coming from, but I do see and smell the gas right above the exhaust.

 

[MannyG20]

Bringing this old thread back up. Did the dealer cover the leak under warranty? I found a similar leak last this morning. My Bronco has been sitting in my driveway for a week as were out of town for New Years. I came home to a puddle of gas under the truck. I have an appointment to drop it off at the dealership tomorrow morning.

Can't really see where the gas is coming from, but I do see and smell the gas right above the exhaust.

The dealer did not cover this under warranty. They said I ran over something that must have been thrown up under the vehicle and damaged the gas line.

 

[BigHoof]

Being the left rear corner of the vehicle, what is there besides the fill tube? Did you happen to overfill the tank recently? Does the flapper appear to be in working order?

 

[MannyG20]

Being the left rear corner of the vehicle, what is there besides the fill tube? Did you happen to overfill the tank recently? Does the flapper appear to be in working order?

OP says it sat for a week. If he overfilled it the gas should have evaporated by then.
could the leak be elsewhere and it is just running downhill till it drips in the rear left corner???

 

[bigbmc26]

I dropped it off at Ford this morning. They had no record of me calling yesterday and making the appointment. I even showed them the email confirmation they sent me, they still started the process over again.

Apparently we have a shortage of techs in the area, they told me they couldn't even look at it until Tuesday of next week. This was the second dealership I tried. The first told we they couldn't look at it for a week and a half! I'm already worried with the process. We'll see what they find next week.

My driveway has a incline, the drip stopped once I moved to a flatter surface. I didn't see any leaks in the line, I'm hoping it is at the fuel filter or the fuel pump. We'll see...

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