Posted by: bigoval - 05 January 2014 09:46:21
So we had some nice dry weather here last Thursday and thought it would be nice to take the beetle to our local vw club meet to kick the new year off in style! That was all well and good... But when I rolled the car out of the garage for the first time in nearly 2 months and checked how much petrol was in it - it was almost empty! I was sure I had filled it up before putting it away? As I couldn't be sure I filled it again and promptly went off to club night. On the way there it sounded like it was being throttled above 50mph... just like it was running out of petrol! After pulling over and checking there was fuel in the tank and at the pump it was fine? After a few hours parked up upon returning to the car and opening the door the stink of petrol from within was pretty strong! I had a look around but couldn't find a leak? So I drove it home with the window open! Had a check in daylight yesterday and noticed I'd got through half a tsnk of petrol which is around twice what I'd normally use... Any idea where it is going to and what I will need to replace?

Posted by: ianmac - 05 January 2014 09:58:09
A leak somewhere, most likely on either flexible hose between fuel tank and frame head or at rear between gearbox horns and engine. Unfortunately most flexible pipe seems to rot pretty quickly nowadays, just make sure you buy some that is of correct grade for modern unleaded fuels.

Posted by: bigoval - 05 January 2014 10:08:30
I forgot to mention I am effectively running it on 5* 100 octane leaded by using https://tetraboost.com/ Will this make any difference to the fuel pipe I need to buy to replace the old stuff? I know a beetle isn't supposed to run on such an exotic fuel mix but I can do 70mph quite easily!

Posted by: Zubeir Moin - 13 January 2014 07:51:18
Most probably the petrol line in the tunnel is leaking. Please get down and look out whether the underside is wet, or somewhere dripping...