Fuel vent hose replacement

For info please note that "front of boot" means towards the front of the car- i.e. under the rear window, and rear of boot means the back of the car near the bumper.

You may recall that I discovered a mysterious (but badly perished) hose whilst I was fiddling in the boot sorting the battery cable. It seemed to across the car in front of the boot opening and just under the rear window.

Top of boot-rear of car- Section of the same tube near boot hatch springs still engaged in a P clip...

 and its route was marked by a series of "P" clips each with a short stub of tube remaining in place.

...and an empty clip in the centre of the boot suggests it used to pass right along the lower edge of the rear windscreen.

The tube then rounded the right-hand corner of the boot and dived behind the side wall covering, sloping downwards and towards the right rear corner of the car. Although this was the best preserved section of the hose, it was still damaged. It emerged in the space below the battery stand but was broken  and there wasn't enough of it to tell where it was actually meant to go.

Brittle plastic tube underneath side wall covering on RHS- apparently dipping down to leave boot at rear right corner. This was the best preserved section but still not connected to anything.

A little research- and aided by the forum revealed that this hose is the remnants of of my fuel filler vent pipe. This is supposed to run from a non-return valve in the fuel filler hose to vent below the car. The hose seems to allow air to enter the tank when required to replace any fuel vapour discharged through the vented filler cap. I struggled with petrol-tightness in my old Elite and never achieved it- the boot always smelled of fuel so I'm keen to avoid any such occurrence in this car so I need to replace this hose. The Excel Parts Manual specifies 3m of this, to connect the filler tube non-return or anti-surge valve to a vent point below the rear bumper on the right. Obviously mine is perished and brittle- largely missing and will need replacing. I suspect someone has replaced it with an ordinary PVC hose that can't tolerate fuel vapour. I bought 3m of SAMCO silicone fuel vent hose (5mm ID) to replace it, although in retrospect a smaller tubing might have been easier to fit.

Its virtually impossible to photograph the non return valve in the fuel filler hose because its hidden behind the hoses.

Fuel filler and tank vent hoses- the filler vent is behind these and hidden.

Luckily- by poking my endoscope behind the hoses, I did manage to get this picture. Its not in focus because I couldn't get a view from a distance large enough for the lens to cope with.

The stump of perished PVC tubing is attached to the non-return valve held in the end of a short length of black fuel hose, itself pushed onto a spigot mounting on the fuel filler. 

I pulled this fitting off so that I could check it. The NR valve is visible in the end of the black hose.

Non return valve fitting. The end of the NR valve is seen protruding from the  black fuel hose

New hose fixed to NR valve and ...

... the assembly refitted to the fuel filler.

I attached the new hose to the NR valve spigot and then pushed the black hose back onto the fuel filler hose spigot. Its not too difficult, but obviously you can't see anything and you are working entirely on "feel". This is why its easier to fit the hose to the NR valve whilst its off the car.

Hose was fed through existing "P" clips across the top of the boot beneath the rear window. A smaller hose might have threaded through more easily but this one did give a nice snug feel.

From the forward right side of the boot the hose looked like it might once have dived straight down into the trough below the battery; however in my case it was stuck behind the boot sidewall trim heading towards the rear of the car so I peeled this back to trace its route.

Peeling back the sidewall trim below the RHS of the boot opening- boot edge trim visible to op picture.

Once it met the rear right hand corner of the car it ran downwards behind the junction of the side and rear wall coverings. I peeled the covering off to follow it

Peeling back wall covering in the rear right-hand corner of the boot...

 I had to remove this small PVC panel that covers the rear light bulb access- one screw missing anyway to free the covering where it was glued to the rear wall of the boot.

I could then peel back the fabric coverings in the corner to trace the hose route.

To reveal the remnants of the hose running vertically downwards

 Although the hose stopped short of the well beneath the battery it had to be going somewhere- loads of debris collected here (including broken fragments of the previous hose) so I cleared all that out...

...and eventually found the grommet lined hole right at the extreme end of the well below the boot. IE in the corner of the body moulding at the front of the boot.

I could feed the hose behind the fabric which folded back to hold it- I will eventually have to re-stick this to the sides of the car, but the spray glue needs a minimum temperature of 10 degrees and at this time in SE UK its no where near that! I will do it later in the Spring.

However, it proved impossible to push the hose through this grommet- perhaps a smaller hose would have gone easily but as the hole is positioned right at the extreme edge of the well you can't get your fingers around the hose to work it in. Having grazed my knuckles terminally I decided to preserve the frayed tatters of skin that remained and so  adopted plan "B". I took a short length of brake tubing, flared the end so that the hose could grip it, and fitted it with a jubilee clip.

This could easily be worked into the hole and gradually bent around to form a "U" bend hook that holds it in position.

Tube installed in nice clean well below the battery.

This brake hose now exits under the car and is visible inside the small trim "vent" slot moulded in the rear valance under and behind the rear bumper. I had always thought these were ornamental! Of course the brake pipe might rattle around a bit when driving so I fitted a stub of hose over it from the rear of the car to cushion it... although the prospect of ever driving this car still seems to be a very distant vision!

As I had to remove the PVC cover for the rear light I did notice it was badly scuffed. I also removed the PVC trim from the left hand rear light cluster and boot lock mechanism. I decided to respray the lot- including the battery cover for completeness. The lock cover looks to be cracked so I will glue a reinforcing section onto it before refitting. Should say I found these fittings really cheap and nasty. Quite inappropriate for an up-market car like the Excel. They are also remarkably flimsy for casings that are likely to take considerable knocks from luggage ... and in its originally intended market probably golf clubs! These fittings are in my view a remarkable survival. I will refit them because they are original, but Mr Chapman, they do your reputation no favours!