Just curious what people on this site have done for repairing their rusted out fuel lines. I patched one spot already a few years back on the drivers side behind passenger door. I just used fuel rated rubber line and hose clamped onto good line. This has held up well over the years but both the fuel and vapor lines are getting really bad and it's time to start planning to replace both lines in entirety.

The nylon fuel tubing looks the most appealing to me at the moment. Just wondering how forgiving this material is in terms of bend like going up under the hood and up back behind rear of car. Will I need 45/90 degree adapters and that type of thing or will this line be capable of one straight piece with the appropriate adapters at the ends? I know you can heat it and bend it but how do you keep it from collapsing at the bend? Any tips or pointers from someone who has used this product would be much appreciated.

Also, what size are the lines? Assuming you'd go by outside diameter. I want to start buying the stuff.

 

Have you looked at the “How To” section on this site ? There is a thread about Fuel Line Follies. Been discussed a LOT. And there are some other threads also.

 

No, I haven't. I will check it out. Thanks!

 

nylon tubing won't do a 90 degree corner, but there aren't too many tight corners

 

Here’s a link, thanks FMG .

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/how-...follies-62310/

 

I appreciate the effort in pointing me to that thread! That was exactly what I needed to see! I really like that nylon kit. Price is a bit high as opposed to piecing it together myself BUT do I really feel like trying to locate all the right clips and such.

Not only that but once I have all the lines off I won't have anything to drive to get to the parts store and we all know that always is the case. You get everything you need and you know it's already going to fit. My lines are not nearly as bad as yours Oldblue. I was under the car today inspecting it and i've got time yet. I was mainly trying to find any signs of fuel leaks or vapor leaks. I keep throwing a P0172. I've checked everything that has been pointed out from threads on here.

I cleaned the injectors last week with a pressure canister and also changed the filter baskets with some universal basket. Seems like every since then is when the P0172 came. It is running extremely rich. Plugs are black and so are 02 sensors. Decided to get new injectors. Fell for the scam on ebay advertising OEM plugs. They even had the part # stamped on them like ACdelco does. Put them and car ran but not good. Took the junk back out and put factories back in but still p0172.

I thought maybe I may have cracked the intake when i did the transmission but i sprayed down every seem with carb cleaner and no change in the idle. it sounds like its sucking air but i can not find it. Unless some of that noise happens naturally on that car. Had the intake off and didn't find anything. Put new gaskets in and torqued to spec. It's kind of narrowed down to two things now after today. It's either fuel pump or injectors.

Put pressure guage on first thing this morning before even cranking and I got 53 psi but it dropped like 7 psi in under 2 mins. Cycled the key again to try and get the pump to prime but i guess the psi wasn't low enough yet to trigger the pump. Started car (barely) and got 60 psi while running and it stayed steady there. the pump has been pretty noisy the last couple of months. But why would a bad pump make the car run rich? Short term trim is like +/- 3 and long term is -19 to -20. It's driving me nuts and i have no choice but to drive the car. Just have to baby it and don't pull out in front of any semi's

 

Another possible cause of P0172 is a cracked exhaust flex pipe, that admits oxygen into the exhaust before it gets to the O2 sensor or a cracked exhaust manifold, both will have the sound you describe.

 

Flex pipe is ok. I had all exhaust off this weekend replacing gaskets. It was overdue and a beautiful weekend so why not. I smoke tested the cat pipe by itself and there were no leaks. Also sprayed it with soapy water when it was back on car and its good. The entire exhaust was gone over and gaskets replaced so i'm good for inspection now. Replace upstream o2 sensor. Replaced intake manifold gaskets. Checked fuel pressure again just for giggles and same as before 53-56psi key on 60psi running. Cleared codes. Driving around Sat night and CEL back on of course again.

This morning I didn't think I was going to get my kid to school. It got pretty chilly last night and the HHR did not like that at all! Took about 10 mins to get it started. She's never done that, ever! Let it warm up a bit and was good but very rich smelly exhaust of course since it's running rich. Get home from taking kid to school and I decided to run the fuel rail canister cleaner one more time just to see if i'd get lucky.

I hooked the canister up and disabled the fuel pump. Put pressure to about 45psi and the car starts right up and purrs like a kitten. So then i'm thinking put the scanner on and check fuel trims to see if they changed and sure enough I watched the LTFT drop right before my eyes. Then it dawns on me. I've bypassed the fuel filter and this thing is running great on the canister it's got to be the fuel pump. But why is my psi satisfactory? Can a fuel regulator go bad but the pump still work fine because that seems to be plausible. At no point did my fuel pressure reading ever make me want to run out tomorrow and buy a pump and do that job!

I'm embarrassed to say as well that I just learned about freeze frame on the OBD2 scanner I got. I can't believe I've lived this long without owning a scanner! And the freeze frame function just made my work a lot easier to pinpoint things. Freeze frame indicates at time of code P0172 my fuel trim parameters were STFT -21 and LTFT -19 whoa!! I'm still trying to figure out how to throw the code. In other words, I can clear the code and drive around for a couple trips before the CEL comes back on granted I can feel something it off. I think it's when hard accelerating from overdrive. I did order GM injectors but I don't think i need them now as im pretty sure its the fuel pump. Wanted to know what everyone's opinion was.

 

How did you bypass the fuel filter? There is just a sock filter on the pump in the fuel tank. I still think fuel pump is weak

 

Not the fuel pump. Too much fuel.

No reason to mess with the injectors.

Use that toy to read the stored ethanol %. Betcha it’s wrong..

Read this:
https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/prob...or-code-65196/

I have found several service bulletins about P0172. I posted a link to the one most relevant to HHR here somewhere, can’t find it.