'99 Maxima, 200K miles

Found gas dripping from the large pipe in the photo below where the hose connects. Shot is from underneath, driver's side, where five pipes (four of them small) all pass by.

Gas was dripping freely from the hose. I have not tried tightening the clamp yet - I sprayed it with PB tonight and will in the morning.

A few questions:

1. What is this pipe/hose?
2. Would it make sense that if the tank was overfilled yesterday at the gas station that it would leak or is that just a coincidence?
3. If the clamp is rusted and can't be tightened, can I remove it and replace it without draining the tank? Or will there be gas everywhere?
4. Is the fitting it attaches to plastic or metal?
5. Any special advice or known problems in this area?

Thanks,

Photo... upside down... under the car at night:

 

Looking at your photo, I think that the hose clamp is plenty tight as the wires of the clamp are compressed into the rubber of the hose. I think it is more likely that the hose itself has dried out and cracked.

You could try another clamp if you want. Just unscrew the old clamp until it falls off in pieces and replace it with worm gear aircraft type clamp. You wouldn't have to take the hose off for this.

 

Thanks,

Is that the fill tube, or something else? If the tank was very full (like it overflowed when pumping), would that tube be full of gas and therefore dripping ?

 

without looking at my car, I'm pretty sure that that is the fill pipe. Whenever the gas tank is full, there will be gas in the pipe. When the tank is close to full, the gas will slosh around and go into that tube and then drain back into the tank. Regardless of how the gasoline gets in that tube (over fill, sloshing), the tube should not leak. Since you do have the leak,you need to fix it as it will only get worse. As I said before, I think that you need to replace the rubber hose section.

 

Thanks. I do plan to fix it... just trying to work out why it became a major leak last night. It probably dripped a little now and then but evaporated and was not noticed.... having it full let it seep big time.

 

Most likely your going to find rust has eaten through the pipe right where that hose connects. I just fixed mine this past spring. With some creativity, a SS nipple and gas approved hoes line you can repair or replace that section.