95 Ford Taurus Fuel Return Line Leaks

My 95 Ford Taurus Has A Nick In The Fuel Return Line Under The Car And It Leaks Fuel. I Found A Small Puddle Under The Car After Returning From A Shopping Trip; Is There Any Way I Can Repair The Line Without Replacing The Whole Return Line. If I Have To Replace The Whole Return Line;what Would Be The Easiest Way To Tackle This Job. Engine Size 3.0L

If it is the plastic style line, you can find brass barbed fittings and insert it into the line as a splice. Then use small clamps to hold lines in place. There is not a lot of pressure on the return line so a repair like this will be safe.

way2old My Ford Taurus had the nylon plastic 5/16 return line. I took your advice and repaired it with a brass barbed splicer kit, I found on the Internet. It only took me ten minutes to install. I'm back on the road with no leaks. Many thanks for the help. BECK100

Keep an eye on it occasionally. I don't think there wilol be any adverse effects from it. If it is on the return line there is minimal pressure on it. Thanks for the follow up.

I know this is a old forum but i thought i would give it a shot. i am experiencing the same problem with my 95 ford Taurus, i have a small puddle under the right side of the passenger door that is gas. there are three lines and one of these lines look like it was pinched a little and is leaking gas. sounds like a really easy fix... and the brass barbed splicer is really cheep like $3. i was wondering if you had any problems with it as time has gone on? what tool did you use to cut the bad section of the fuel line out? i don't want to hack the line up and make it worse. thanks for reading, anything will help..

Welcome to the forum!

Beck100 has not logged on to this forum since Feb 2009 so there's a pretty high chance they will not see this post or respond. However, that could be good news and probably means the fix was successful for as long as they owned the car anyway.

Way2Old has a lot of experience with these cars and his advice is quite sound, therefore it seems like a good option for you if your leaking line is also of the plastic variety. I've had good luck using the long blade hose cutters with this type of line and I would recommend that style to cut out the bad section of hose.

-Rod

THANK YOU! the line was plastic for some reason i thought it might have a metal lining inside. the advice worked and i was able to fix the line and stop the leak. thanks again.

When I've done these splices I first remove the fuel line so it can be heated up safely. Make a cut through the line at the hole location. I then boil a pot of water on the stove and take the pot out to the garage to keep the fuel lines away from flames (and also not have the wife yell about gasoline smell in the house). Dip the cut ends into the water and after a minute or two, take one out and press the splice into it. Once seated, do the other. Sometimes the plastic has cooled before fully seating, so it goes back in the water to warm up again. Heat guns and torches, not only can be dangerous, will sometimes deform the line and make it useless.

My 95 Ford Taurus has developed the same problem as kevindd and BECK100--fuel return line got nicked near the gas tank and is leaking. As a car care novice I took it to the local Ford dealer where for $160 in 'diagnostic fees' they were able to tell me that the fuel return lines for this model are obsolete and for liability reasons they recommend I get the car towed to a junkyard.

I'm gonna try splicing the line as way2old and shorod described, but 65comet's comment makes me a little concerned because I'm very hesitant to try detaching the whole line with my limited experience. If I just wait overnight while the line drips dry before doing the splice, is it really necessary to detach the whole thing?

If you go the route of a properly sized brass barbed fitting and clamp it on both ends over the brass, you shouldn't need to remove the line or necessarily heat it up to slide it over the barb. Heating it with hot water would certainly make it easier to slide over the barbs though.

Also, as Way2Old mentioned, the return line is not under quite as high of pressure as the supply line so the barb and clamp approach usually works quite well.

-Rod

Thanks for the help, Rod!

I fixed the fuel return line, but what the dealership forgot to mention on the phone was that the 1/8" evap line (same spot, under right rear passenger door) also got cleaved in two. I don't imagine they make brass barbed splices that small--is there another fix or do I need to start scouring junkyards for parts?

The EVAP line should have very minimal pressure. I'd be inclined to find some vacuum tubing that fits snuggly over that line, cut it about 2 inches long, put a little black RTV on the EVAP line on both sides of the break, slide the vacuum line over one end of the broken line, then over the other end, let the RTV cure, and call it good.

-Rod

Thanks a ton, Rod! The car's running great now.