Just a heads up to fellow R129 owners .
I started noticing a smell of petrol over the last week , getting progressively worse , no obvious drips under the car but the smell was inside the car and in the boot . There was also no longer any vacuum when I removed the filler cap .
My initial thought was a rusty fuel pipe or rubber hose underneath ; putting the car up on ramps and removing the cover from the fuel pump pack revealed everything in surprisingly good condition and no sign of any leaks .
The filler neck inside the boot looked fine , so I set about removing the metal bulkhead at the front of the boot to reveal the tank - once I had undone the two dozen or so bolts , the problem was evident : the bulkhead had been chafing against the tank ( which seems to be fibreglass itself and not plastic as I had presumed ) and had worn a tiny hole , just enough to allow a slow leak of fuel which was evaporating before dripping out anywhere . This was near the bottom of the tank , where a crease runs across its width . There were five areas where chafing was evident , but only the one had gone into a hole .
I've just spent the last couple of hours building up layers of fibreglass matting over the affected areas , and due to the cold temperatures will leave it a while further before putting fuel in to see if it's worked . Worst case scenario is I'll have to get another tank from Carl Burgess , but hopefully this will be OK .
I'm going to put a piece of carpet between the metal bulkhead and the tank to avoid repetition .
Don't know if anyone else has experienced this , but thought I'd flag it up .
I started noticing a smell of petrol over the last week , getting progressively worse , no obvious drips under the car but the smell was inside the car and in the boot . There was also no longer any vacuum when I removed the filler cap .
My initial thought was a rusty fuel pipe or rubber hose underneath ; putting the car up on ramps and removing the cover from the fuel pump pack revealed everything in surprisingly good condition and no sign of any leaks .
The filler neck inside the boot looked fine , so I set about removing the metal bulkhead at the front of the boot to reveal the tank - once I had undone the two dozen or so bolts , the problem was evident : the bulkhead had been chafing against the tank ( which seems to be fibreglass itself and not plastic as I had presumed ) and had worn a tiny hole , just enough to allow a slow leak of fuel which was evaporating before dripping out anywhere . This was near the bottom of the tank , where a crease runs across its width . There were five areas where chafing was evident , but only the one had gone into a hole .
I've just spent the last couple of hours building up layers of fibreglass matting over the affected areas , and due to the cold temperatures will leave it a while further before putting fuel in to see if it's worked . Worst case scenario is I'll have to get another tank from Carl Burgess , but hopefully this will be OK .
I'm going to put a piece of carpet between the metal bulkhead and the tank to avoid repetition .
Don't know if anyone else has experienced this , but thought I'd flag it up .
