Hello,
My car had gas smell in the back for a while... somewhat under the fuel tank filler neck, but it smelled in the trunk too. I assumed it comes from the little spills after filling the tank... Well , today that smell got on my nerves and I went under the car to get to the bottom of it. First thing I noticed is that where metal supply line (that goes from trunk) connects to a rubber line (over rear suspension) - end of that rubber line is wet with gas. After unscrewing metal part of the line from trunk connector I noticed that it rotates fairly easy in the rubber part of the line. So I figured that clamp has lost its tension and proceeded to install new clamp on top. That was quite a difficult job as connection is between body and rear suspension, so I put two clamps on... connected all back and started the car... rubber piece was still getting wet. As I was trying to tighten the clamps I finally saw "the fountain"! if I pull or bend the rubber line - I get a tiny fountain of gas. It is cracked...

Did anyone replace those lines? (my manual calls them "under-floor pipework"). The rubber part goes into the gap between suspension and the body, on the other side it is a metal pipe again. If I wanted to replace just rubber part - it looks like I would need to drop the whole rear suspension. The metal line that continues is bent and attached to the body in many places. Perhaps I could detach the whole line from body, re-bend it in some way so that I can push it through the gap to get access to the rubber part?

Or perhaps I could buy a long flexible braded fuel line and connect it to fuel filter in the trunk and run it all the way to the engine(replacing the original pipework)?

Looking for any suggestions, tips, part numbers...

Thank you!

 

I have actually in an emergency, following a leak such as you describe, replaced the rubber pipe which is part of the solid/rubber/solid assembly without removing anything from the car. If you remove the wheel you can get to it: just remove the OEM clamps/ferrules and replace the rubber pipe with top quality high pressure hose and use a couple of clamps each end.

This is the piece I mean:

 

Thank you for the encouraging post. I went and looked again - I do not see "the other end" . My lines after rubber hose seem to go all the way to the engine.
This is them going in from trunk side:




And this is them coming out on the other side.


my other option is probably to cut metal lines somewhere where I can access them and use longer hose to connect the two.

 

Make sure your new rubber hose says either SAE J30 R9 or J30 R14. Both are fuel injection hose

Don't let the knuckle head at the auto parts place sell you J30 R7 hose, which is what a lot of places stock and hand out because its cheap compared to the other two. R7 is meant for PVC valve and vapor canister connections

Doug