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My Maxima is leaking fuel from the sending unit when tank is close to full, otherwise it's just fumes that are leaking.
There is a hairline crack on the driver side of the connector part of said sending unit.
I did find DennisMik's very useful post on how to replace it with a new one.
I'm just wondering whether a new part is actually just as old as the cracked one, minus the gas exposure.
For those that replaced it with a new one, how is it holding up?
For those that have tried to glue it, how did that work out?
Did anyone find some cheaper (than $130) alternative for a new one?
The units that you would buy today are not as old as the car. They could be 2 - 3 years old, but definitely not 15 or 20 years old.
I thought about trying to somehow fix/patch the crack by various methods including even melting the plastic. However I took a pessimistic view of patching and replaced the unit. If I were to try some kind of patching, I would remove the sending unit and do it from both sides of the crack.
Mine had developed cracks which lead to similar symptoms about 4 years ago. I repaired mine by removing and sanding down the area on and around the crack and used JB Weld to seal it, haven't had it leak since then.
I ended up using JB-Weld WaterWeld on both sides of the sender. Once I removed the unit I saw that the cracks were more extensive than I could see from the outside; I should have bought a new unit. So far, after 6 days, no gas leaks to complain of, no gas smells.
I was surprised at how clean the gas tank was.
Unlike Dennismik, I had no rubber seal for the inner connector that goes to the fuel pump.
Even though I bought a new one for this job, I left the previous O-ring in there as it seemed fine.
