I got lucky yesterday

[Sam K]

I guess I didn't *Lucky* yestersay, but luck was definitely on my side. I drove the bug to work and on my way home, while sitting in traffic on the highway, I kept thinking that I smelled gas or something. At one point when traffic was stopped, I even opened the doorand leaned out to look under the car and see if anything was leaking. I probably should have pulled over and conducted a full scale investigation but I was in a bit a hurry to get home and take my Mustang to test & tune so I didn't. Anyhow, when I pulled into the garage and opened the decklid, I discovered that the fuel pressure gauge mounted to the was literally showering the engine with fuel and probably had been for the entire trip home (about 40 minutes), so I feel fairly fortunate.  The faulty gauge can be seen on the top of the fanshroud in the picture below. I guess the lesson here is not to ignore fuel smells when driving a VW.

[Gary Justus]

How/where was it leaking?

[Jason Foster]

 I had that happen once too with an Autometer non oil filled gauge.

[OgCalLook]

Lucky? Yes - Fire/New paint - you've restored that car too many times already!!!

[cal-look 56]

I had my freshly painted street car catch fire about 15 yrs ago from a similiar incident.  Luckily it was just a rewire and rear repaint.  You dodged a bullet my friend.

[andy M.]

I never run my car on the street with the pressure gauge connected up, I only fit it when checking the pressure when doing a tune up,
there is absolutely no point in having a gauge in your engine bay that you can't see whilst driving,
 They are a weak point in the system that have in the past caused big fires!

andy

[Brandon Sinclair]

I am with Andy-I just use a fuel pressure gauge when setting up everything to verify the fuel pressure then remove it from the engine compartment.  One less possibility for a leak.

Looking at your photo reminds me of a post I read by Harry Pellow years ago.  He was known as the Maestro and specialized in 356 rebuilds.  Well I remember him writing a post about how someone brought in his 356 which was leaking everywhere.  One of the fuel lines was behind the fan shrouds (like yours is in the photo), and it was leaking into the fan and gas was being sent through the shroud onto the hot cylinders.  That person was lucky too since it had not ignited yet.

[Sam K]

How/where was it leaking?

It was leaking internally, filling the gauge up with fuel and spraying out around the edges. I tried to return it to the store where I bought it (in April) and they couldn't belive it was only two months old as all the paint had come off the needle and the numbers were staring to come off as well. They refused to exchange it, so I will no longer be shopping there.