Fuel leak from Autometer sender

**kannon** · September 6th, 2001, 09:18 PM

Luckily it happened 5 miles from home. Luckily it happened in a good area. Thank god it happened 1 mile from my girlfriends parent's house.

I noticed the smell of gas while cruising at about 40mph on local roads. Then glanced up at my Autometer short-sweep pressure gauge... 25psi! jeeezus!

Pulled over and immediately checked under the car, assuming its my Dr. Frankenstein external Bosch fuel pump installation. No drips.

Next, checked under the hood. Low and behold, it smells like Texaco under there. The leak appeared to be coming from the fuel line running to my fuel pressure sender. So, walked to the in-law's and hitched a ride home to get a new fuel injection hose clamp to replace the cheezy worm gear one I was using.

... fast forward an hour, replaced the clamp primed the pump.. and ta-da... FUEL GUYSER!

Turns out I'm shooting fuel out of the top of the sender, right where the power wire hooks up. Fantastic.. thank god gas isn't a conductor, but still!

I'm not overly pleased with the situation. I ended up calling AAA to get towed home, but of course I'm too low for that., So I got to perform minor surgery in a parking lot last night around 11pm to remove the T fitting from the top of the fuel filter.

Now I get to dig up my receipt and get in touch with Autometer and ask.. WTF?

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**lilmikey77** · September 6th, 2001, 11:27 PM

Let me know what you find out.. I purchased a used fuel pressure gauge with the fuel pressure sending unit from a fellow hostboard member and when i hooked it up the sending unit was leaking also!

i talked to the guy and he's super cool about it, and he's going to pay half of the new sending unit... they're $30 new. but anyways, this thing looks perfect and i used a wrench to tighten it.. but its leaking around the seal where the metal is like pressed together.

let me know what you find out

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my charger blows!

**DoctorBob** · September 7th, 2001, 12:41 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by kannon:
Now I get to dig up my receipt and get in touch with Autometer and ask.. WTF?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I've seen a few posts on various boards stating / implying that Autometer isn't the quality product that we'd all hope it would be. Obviously, this one is pretty serious. Does anybody have recommendations for alternate sources of high quality gauges that match the stock interior (white on black, no chrome or "indiglo")?

Be glad your lady friend wasn't in the car. In-laws are hard enough to deal when they _don't_ have an excuse to bust your balls....

[Seriously, I'm glad you found the leak before the leak found you.]

--
DoctorBob (who's been married ten years + two kids and is _still_ "that boy" to psycho mother in law).

**Team Hostboard** · September 7th, 2001, 01:15 AM

The only alternative that might be close is VDO.

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...Steven
HostBoard Administrator
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**JRCivic** · September 7th, 2001, 06:28 AM

Autometer is not a bad product...

You simply have to be realistic and accept a greater possibility of problems with the "ECONOMY" line of products. Seriously, who here thinks that the $79.00 half-sweep electric fuel pressure gauge has the same quality level as the $209.00 full-sweep unit ???

Has anyone here had a failure with a FULL-SWEEP Autometer fuel pressure gauge ???

Good shit ain't cheap and cheap shit ain't good... you really do get what you pay for. I am not trying to be a hard-ass about this... and I really do feel for you being stranded... but I hate to see a good company get bashed for the wrong reasons.

For the record, since I am a dealer and I have sold all kinds of gauges... VDO is not any better than Autometer. If you want really nice stuff, look at HKS, GReddy, APEX-i... and you better be sitting down when you see the pricing !!!

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'93 Civic Si H/B with B18C1, JRSC @ 8psi
Best 1320: 12.68 at 110 mph

**DoctorBob** · September 7th, 2001, 01:41 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by JRCivic:
Seriously, who here thinks that the $79.00 half-sweep electric fuel pressure gauge has the same quality level as the $209.00 full-sweep unit ???<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You make a good point but also remember there are those of us who ask these questions because we don't know the answers.... wink

For example, I'm still at the stage of trying to establish a near complete list of all the things required / recommended for a reliable powerful set-up. One piece that I've seen on the WRX but not for the Integra is a dash-mounted gauge console that replaces the stock clock assembly (in the Integra, it would sit on top of the current divot in the dash).

Aesthetically, I'd rather go that route than mount stuff on the pillar but I'm a data junkie so whatever it takes to get the gauges in the car. Anybody ever see such a thing?

--
DoctorBob

**XerxesSi** · September 7th, 2001, 02:15 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by JRCivic:
For the record, since I am a dealer and I have sold all kinds of gauges... VDO is not any better than Autometer. If you want really nice stuff, look at HKS, GReddy, APEX-i... and you better be sitting down when you see the pricing !!!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Another high quality brand to check out is Defi, they have a very nice integrated electronic setup.

But yeah all those gauges are way too much $ so that's why i've gone with all autometer gauges.
here's hoping my full sweep autometer fp doesn't fail smile

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'99 Civic Si

**kannon** · September 7th, 2001, 09:31 PM

didn't mean to bash autometer... although regardless of how cheap a product is, it shouldnt fail in less than a year, under light usage, within spec.

should have gone with a full sweep anyhow. i guess now is my chance.

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**reddelsol** · September 8th, 2001, 04:44 AM

I also had a fuel leak, via autometer.

Cheap or not, could get them a nice lawsuit if someone gets hurt.

I'd like to see their complaint stats.

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"There's nothing wrong with the car except that it's on fire."