Fuel Lines
While sorting out the rear suspensions I kept getting a slight smell of fuel and then I remembered I did get a great deal on eBay for the small fuel line that goes from the fuel pump to the main line which is a Porsche only part and cost well over £150-ish plus vat for £40 so I reckoned I was half way there, amd was thinking, “how hard could it be really as there only pipes” 😭 With one piece sorted is was time to replace the whole lot I figured, as there are too may pictures online of 944’s that set on fire 🔥 from fuel leaks.
The main two hard lines that run under the car had both been cut after the screw in unions and jubilee clips used, and while this is acceptable for the return line, I wasn't comfortable with the input line, as it runs at a high PSI and the jubilee clips are exposed to the elements and had already rusted up pretty badly.
Waleswood 944 sells a fuel line replacement kit which does Supply: to Fuel Filter to Fuel Rail & Return: Fuel Rail to Rear Axle Return Line. This kit also replaces the hard lines under the car and the engine bay hoses. It’s also longer that the original line so you can route the lines in the engine bay around the bulkhead rather than directly over the exhaust manifold, which is the main cause of the fired 944’s I have seen online.
The this meant the return line from under the axle to the tank is the only pipe I did not replace. The return line was actually in great condition, Unlike the standard rubber
fuel lines found elsewhere on the 944, the return line to the fuel
tank features a more durable construction. It's built with
reinforcement cords wrapped in a tight spiral pattern around the hose.
These cords run at a uniform angle, creating distinctive parallel lines
that circle the pipe's surface. This heavy-duty spiral-wound design
makes it particularly resistant to wear while maintaining the
flexibility needed to follow the tank's contour.
The fuel filter and the in tank filter was also changed. Removing the in tank filter can be problematic as the tank is plastic and the threaded sleeve is metal and the filter thread is also metal. If they are seized together you will end up pulling twisting the sleeve out the tank and the tank will need replacing which means you have to drop the gearbox the get it out.
I used a jubilee clip around plastic that the sleeve in the tank sits in to keep that tight in the plastic housing, then used some freeze it spay and shocked the unit with some taps for a rubber hammer and small turns on the wrench. There is a nice groove below for the jubilee clip to seat on which you can see below.
If all goes wrong, there is a fix from 928s R-US and there is also a YouTube video to help from Deancent Garage
Luckily it came out with no problems for me 🙏
Routing the pipes under car is best done from the back to front as the clearance is not that great at rear of the car and any additional pipe length quickly becomes a problem. I started at the front and then had to start again from the back.
I replaced all metal pipe clips with plastic one as there all rusted up
The braided fuel lines and the braided brake line are too big for rubber holders that sit inside the plastic clips so these had to be cut down. My grandson Kai helped with this task, and as all the work is under the car, he was very helpful passing down all the tools I needed to route the pipe to the front of the car. Like most jobs that are done under the car when it is on axle stands a helper really make the job much easier.
The lines are longer than the hard lines so you have enough length to run it along the bulk head at the front of the car and avoid running it directly over the exhaust manifold.
The result was reassuring. There are only two jubilee clips in the setup, the ones that connect the fuel pump to the tank, which is under the car and has low fuel pressure. The rest of the high-pressure line connections are compression fittings, so leaking fuel was no longer a worry.
