A byproduct of my 00VI install was replacing some of the fuel lines, since I eliminated the vacuum gallery. All WAS well until tonight when I went to drive the car and noticed a fuel smell and the car ran like crap. This was maybe 10 seconds into driving, so I immedeatly pulled back into the driveway, shut the car off, and popped the hood.

Turns out the fuel return line had popped off the fuel rail. Not all the way off, but enough to spray fuel all over the place. Had it been a tiny, miniscule amount, I would have cleaned it up with a rag and called it a lesson learned. But, it was no small amount. It coated most everything on the driver's side of the engine bay, and left shallow puddles in some places right near where the line came off. I tried to soak some up, and immedeatly disconnected the battery as well.

So how do I clean this up safely? It would be great if I could drive the car tommorrow, as I have remedied the problem that caused the hose to pop off (loose connection + something else near it helping to pull it off from tension). My first thought was to cover the filter and some electrical stuff and spray it down with my pressure washer, but it's fuel and I wasn't sure how well that would work.

Help me out guys, I'm a little worried

 

You can use shop towels to wipe up any excess fuel. Most likely as soon as the liquid is wipped up the risiduals should vaporize. You might want to let it dry up for a little while. Maybe run the car at idle for 15min to allow the heat to evaporate any left over fuel.

 

I was talking to gtr_rider and he advised me to actually clean the engine bay with some water. I plan on soaking up some of the shallow puddles that formed on some things with rags, then covering up my filter and spraying it down with some low pressure water (battery is out of the car right now as a safety precaution).

Unless you think your method would be better I wouldn't know. I'd LIKE to be able to drive my car to work tommorrow, though.

 

I really wouldnt worry about it, as long as the pools of fuel are gone the rest will evaporate very quickly. You'll probably have the smell for a day or so. My 3rd gen leaked at an injector o ring before I got a chance to change it and it always had a small pool when I stopped driving.

~Alex

 

Yeesh. Well I think I'm still going to follow some others' advice and spray the engine bay down as well. That way I won't have to deal with the smell as much, either.

 

Gasoline is petroleum-based (DUH) so water won't do all that much other than spread it around. Use a good engine degreaser on it.

 

Yeah, good idea. When I went out to take a look at it this morning, I couldn't find any puddles or any trace of gas at all other than a FAINT smell. I sprayed it down with water anyway and am currently letting it dry. I only plan to take 2 real short drives (to and from work) today so tommorrow morning I'll degrease it.

 

when my fuel line popped off, i soaked up the physical puddles that where in the engine bay, and the rest just evaporated in a few minutes

funny u mention this, my fuel line popped off when i was driving, after i had the 00Vi done already for like a few weeks, I was running on a popped(half-assed on the fuel rail though) fuel line for like 3 blocks before i pulled over.... it was NOT a pretty sight.....

 

Gotta be careful dealing with Fuel lines, man you could have burend up the car while driving it with the reutrn line sraying around the hot engine.

 

Gotta be careful dealing with Fuel lines, man you could have burnt up the car while driving it with the reutrn line sraying around the hot engine.

 

I know what you mean, but how could I have seen through the hood....? The car's performance kept getting from barely noticable, to greatly significant and thats why I decided to stop.