Major gas leak discovered! (Among other things)
Well it was good that I got the gas guage fixed because it demonstrated that I wasn't getting as good a milage as I should. Also the strong oder of gas in the garage should have been a major clue that something was amiss. So this morning I looked under the car and sure enough a big wet spot. The Ghia had peed on the floor overnight. The smell test, yep its gasoline. So off to the mechanic this morning for inspection.
The leak was about level with the oil drain plug where the gas line comes out of the central tunnel. There is a rubber hose that connects the metal gas line to the engine at that point. When the mechanic touched the hose to see if it was tight it came apart in his hands. Leak found. We'll let it sit overnight to see if there's any other problems.
While he was at it I had him check the heater cables. The previous owner reported that the heat was on during the summer and it couldn't be shut off. I noticed I only had heat on the passenger side in the back and didn't seem to be able to control the flow. Turns out both cables are busted. There is also a missing hose from the heat exchanger to the body on the driver side. No wonder the heating system doesn't seem to work.
The leak was about level with the oil drain plug where the gas line comes out of the central tunnel. There is a rubber hose that connects the metal gas line to the engine at that point. When the mechanic touched the hose to see if it was tight it came apart in his hands. Leak found. We'll let it sit overnight to see if there's any other problems.
While he was at it I had him check the heater cables. The previous owner reported that the heat was on during the summer and it couldn't be shut off. I noticed I only had heat on the passenger side in the back and didn't seem to be able to control the flow. Turns out both cables are busted. There is also a missing hose from the heat exchanger to the body on the driver side. No wonder the heating system doesn't seem to work.
posted by Doug Druckenmiller at 3:36 PM
1 Comments:
Sounds like we both got hit by the gas leak bug and we both fell for the conventional "Oh well, old VWs just smell like that!" thinking. I'm going to make a new post about the latest report from my mechanic, part of which has to do with how I didn't really fix the gas leak as I thought!
As for heater control cables and hoses, that's a very easy fix from what I've seen in the Haynes manual. I ordered a new heater control cable as mine's obviously snapped in two. I can see the remaining four inches of cable attached to the valve by the engine hanging down under my car. Replacing that is not much different from replacing a shifter cable on a bike. Easy! (or, so he thought ... *ominous music* ).
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