WARNING Rubbish fuel hose from Pearl Products

[silverbullet]

Changed all the fuel hoses the other weekend along with injection filter etc. (managed to forget the tank return hose underneath)
Went back to the job (when I remembered) while replacing the throttle cable - 6 hours!!! - to find:

Main fuel pump feed 12mm hose has an oily drip hanging on the pump, but no fuel leak...The s***ing hose has gone soft after just two weeks and is dissolving!
Pearl products rubbish printed "fuel and oil hose, suitable for unleaded and leaded". Leaded?? On hose dated/made 6 months ago?? GO AND CHECK YOUR FUEL HOSES NOW AND CHANGE THEM IF SUSPECT WITH QUALITY ITEMS.

I only fitted this as I figured that it was time to change the original '89 date coded hose (11m x 3mm wall) There was nothing wrong with it either. I've got 1/2 a tank of gas in that SA tank too, about 40 litres!

Where can I get the proper 11mm bore fuel hose for the inj.pump feed before it's all on the drive and down the drain? Local factors all say "dunno mate. won't 12mm do?" NO IT WON'T.

[HarryMann]

1) Volkswagen

2) Simon Baxter (Brickwerks) ?

3) Wiki parts suppliers (Sundries)

[Fritz]

I had a similar problem about 12 months with some hose I bought from an independant motor factors in the Southport area ,I can only suspect was a cheap copy made in Far East.

I hoped the stuff I bought was going to last the life of the van as it was identical to OEM fuel hose..it lasted 3 months,,,,


Regards

Fritz,,,,,,,,,,,

[HarryMann]

Trading Standards would take this rather seriously I think...

T25s already have some issues with engine bay fuel-fed fires, without this sort of hose being sold

[Oldiebut goodie]

Try a complaint to the quality control manager?
Quality Control:
Mick Elder Quality Manager

[silverbullet]

Now there's a thought. I've got the bit between me teeth now. I'm taking this further. Someone's going to get hurt, or maimed or killed because of this kind of cr#ppy cheapo repro tosh. Grrrrrrrrrrr!
Take a deep breath - and relax. Pick up phone.
"Hello. Is that the BBC? I've got an item for Watchdog."

[HarryMann]

http://wiki.club8090.co.uk/index.php/Pe ... re_warning

Bays are worse I believe, but we should always use this forum to draw new owners attention to such things... there are a lot of new owners acquiring T25s these days and many of them seem to be registering on club80-90 (we are steadily approaching 10,000 registered users).

No scare-mongering - but just keeping an awareness and heads-up amongst those newbies or non-tech types who may take vehicle safety for granted (despite buying a 20 > 25 year old vehicle for 'the family')

[mike_gee32]

I started to reply to this before I had lunch, but posted it as the thread in general was locked so lost 10mins of typing now I've eaten I'll try again.

I'm surprised that you've had problems with this, I spent over 10 years working in factors and accessory shops selling Pearl stuff and never had a problem, had pearl hose on my van for 8 years and it's still in good condition. Saying that Pearl don't make anything themselves they just buy in bulk and repackage in smaller quantities so they may have changed suppliers - I've been out of the game for nearly 3 years now.

As yours is an injection did you get injection hose, they do 2 types injection and non injection - it will say injection on the hose if is. Normal hose won't last long under the pressures of an injection system, and I can't remember them doing injection hose bigger than 8mm (but I could be wrong it was a while ago).

The other thing to consider is if the hose got contaminated at the factors, we used to get lots of badly packed boxes of stock from the warehouse the amount of times some monkey would put a brake disk in a box containing oil/paint/thinners/brake fluid etc then when it's thrown around by the driver the disk smashes the rest of the stuff in there resulting in everything getting covered. The usual process was to return totally knackered stuff but clean up anything that could be. I'd guess hose would get a wipe at best but there are lots of possible slovents that would degrade it.

However or whyever it happened it's lucky you spotted it and the van didn't go up in flames but I don't think its one for watchdog, I would be shouting at the manager of the place you brought it though, and tell Pearl directly and let their quality dept see it.

[HarryMann]

I started to reply to this before I had lunch, but posted it as the thread in general was locked so lost 10mins of typing now I've eaten I'll try again.

Sorry about that MIke! That's why we don't like cross-posted and duplicate posts, so I knew responses would get splattered everywhere and (quick as I could) linked them all to this one and locked the other 4. In Firefox certainly, all you need to do is hit the Back button and you'll get the whole post text back in the Reply/E D I T window ready for copying and pasting into a new reply...

In fact, during all that, we had a 1 second power cut and this PC turned itself off, but upon restart, Firefox came up with the same window open and all but the last few keystrokes perfectly intact... Firefox
Other browsers should also really respond to the back button too like that

Aditionally, you may have noticed that this latest phpBB 3.05 we are using, warns you when Submitting a Reply, that another post has been made since you started responding, and allows you to read what has since been said, committing your reply or reverting to re-editing it (a subtle use of Preview Mode) phpBB3

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Several good points made by the way!
Where exactly was this fuel hose used? the supply (downstream) side of the pump is about 30 psi minumum.

[mike_gee32]

Cheers, posting from work so still on i.e 6.0 useful that firefox keeps the text when you go back, might try that when I get home

BTW, just phoned a mate who still works for the factors I used to and pearl only do 10mm or 12mm fuel hose not 11mm and the bigest bore injection spec hose is 8mm.

[HarryMann]

11 mm bore required?

Could here be another explanation then?

Should be rated at about 3 to 4 bar for safety downstream of pump, agree ?

[silverbullet]

Just got off the phone from Pearl's Tech Support guy - he's alarmed to say the least. Will be going back to local supplier and getting reassurances that it will get back to Pearl asap for testing.

The hose is fitted as the primary suction pipe, from the fuel tank outlet and direct into the fuel pump, so working nominally at atmospheric pressure. Labelled as fuel/oil hose with multiple bar pressure rating, which doesn't apply in this instance.

He did use the term "overseas suppliers" so I guess that says it all.

Getting twitchy about the pressure side hoses now - I did the lot on one go.

Regarding the size discrepancy, I wasn't too happy about using it as it was a bit "easy" on the fuel tank outlet as well as the pump inlet, but I didn't have to wring the neck off the hose clamps if that's what you're suggesting.

The big issue is the fact that in the space of two weeks, the hose has gone from "new" to "slimy rotten liquorice"...

[mike_gee32]

I wouldn't think not using 11mm will be too bad as long as good quality fuel pipe clips NOT jubilee clips are used, the correct clips stay round and exert even clamping pressure all round the hose, jubilees go oval and put very little clamping force where the screw part is, personally I would try to get 10mm on, by soaking the end in nearly boiling water for a few seconds to soften it. If you can't get 10mm over then as long as the 12mm is snug over the flare on the barb, which is where the seal is formed, and the clamp is inboard of this it should be ok.

Downstream should be 4 bar (min pump pressure is 2.5bar) but reading the op again he's talking about the tank to pump inlet, ie low pressure side so injection hose not required, I still can't think of anything other than contamination or, possibly, uv damage that would cause fuel rated hose to degrade so quickly.

Again, talk to the supplier/Pearl, they won't have supplied substandard hose intentially.

**previous response posted while I was typing this***

[mike_gee32]

I'm guessing you've not used all the hose, I would send a bit back to Pearl directly, having seen how some factors work it wouldn't surprise me if when you compain to them they give you a refund and some empty reassurance, then when you've gone someone 'remembers' a spillage, using it for an enema etc, and a nice new bit gets sent to supplier. Suddenly reply is nothing wrong with the hose, must be something you've done

[silverbullet]

The hose that I took off had the remains of VW ----- 11 x 3 mm printed on it and a mid-1989 date code, which would be right for my 1990 SA microbus. Never been changed. It's going back on until I can get some new and correct.

I checked the hose tails both on the tank and the fuel pump, both meant for 11mm. Bosch fuel pump (also original) and checked that against an old Jag XJS one which is identical and that has 11mm bore hose too, original Jaguar part numbers (we do a bit of that here)

No doubt in my mind.

I'm not going to take it all back to the supplier anyway. They'll get about 1/3 it back at best. Some to the supplier, some direct to Pearl, some for me as insurance proof.

I'll get the b######s.