Re: [alfa] 164 fuel leaks and fire hazard

[Nicky Avery <nicky@xxxxxxxxx>]

It seems that there was not so far a flood of responses from people
saying their 164s had burned. (This is a relief!)

After buying my car with incorrectly sized flexible tubing installed and
going through the gas spraying over the motor scenario, I concluded that
tightening the hose clamps is part of routine maintenance and it's
simple enough to do. Using the correct tubing is also a good start.

Problems concerning hoses around the tank appear to be less common from
what listers said.

The biggest differences appear to be in the level of tolerance of the
owners. I am not prepared to dump my car becuase of a problem which was
solved without incident and which is easily controllable. I do not
condemn anyone who takes the view that this should not be something
which needs to be controlled.

Since no one else reported the same experience, I think that the recent
fire was likely an unusual event. Perhaps someone else can tell us
whether 164 fuel lines are in fact routed over the exhaust pipe? Could
the tank itself have been damaged? Could a pipe have parted company with
its connection?  Was improper maintenance or amateur "improvement" to blame?

Brian wrote:

> I don't know about 164's, but Milano's certainly went up in flames a
> lot, not due to fuel problems but due to debris in the heating ducts.
> Seems like Alfa went to the trouble of putting an ignitor in there to
> take care of things...
This was a feature. Similarly, IIRC, the original VW 1500s had a
gasoline-fueled heater which, on early models, had a tendency to
spontaneously reenact Viking funerals.

Nicky
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