Hard Fuel lines and brake lines, NEED ADVICE!!! what to do? Options

[6gsillyca]

LONG READ

A few weeks ago, i was having some issues with my brakes. the symptoms lead me to believe it was the master brake cylinder. I took it to a shop to have them look at it and tell me for sure what the problem was. it turned out to be my hard brake lines, i guess they were all rotten out. No big deal. I ok the shop to do the work. It was supposed to have taken a day or two. I dropped the car off on thursday (15th), and just got it back yesterday. When I ask why it was supposed to take a day or two and ended up taking 2 weeks, i was told it was the dealers fault because of the way they shipped it (ups ground), and they had no control over how dealer ships their parts. After they got the parts, it still took 4 days to get it done and back to me. By now im getting impatient as i need my car to drive to work everyday. W/e its not a HUGE deal, as long as everything is done right I didnt mind waiting.

Anyways, i pick it up yesterday, and was NOT impressed. The owner wasnt in when i went to pick it up, and the slackjaws told me to come back this morning to talk with him about the issues i am having.

First thing i noticed when i left was my door handle was loose (handle, lock cylinder) it seemes like someone was really tugging on it while it was locked.

second is now i have a grinding noise comming from front left wheel well, that is noticible when turning left at 50+mph

third and most importaint is now i have a fuel leak. One line sprays a mist of fuel when it is running (line that is attached to the gas tank, either main line or return line) and the other has the black rubber piece connected to it (not the hard coating, but the soft rubber hose). That one is now leaking as well.

Here are the answers I got when i went into the shop this morning and talked to the owner (note that he DIDNT move from behind his desk, go out side and actually look at the car):

door handle - "it was like that when you dropped it off"

grinding - "everything is rusted under there. could be sound from anything. my mech. only bled the brakes in the front area, so problem was there before"

fuel leak - "everything is rusted under there. i had to drop the tank to change the lines. im not surprised you have a leak. they moved when i dropped the tank, but they were already rusted so its not my fault. take it to the dealer."


when he told me about the fuel lines i asked him "why didnt you tell me they were rusted before? couldnt you have told me about it before you did all the work? If they were that bad i would have changed them out as well. besides they run together anyways, so if you are taking out the brake lines, and dropping the tank and taking everything off...the fuel lines are right next to them

response - "thats a totally different problem. you wanted a brake pedal, so thats what we did. fix your brakes. take it to the dealership to get the fuel leak fixed" meanwhile im thinking *if you couldnt fix it then i would have taken it to the dealership from the beginning, had them fix my brake lines and save on the labor of taking everything off twice!*


i ask him why my other celica the lines are all nice and neat, attached to clips, and on the one they worked on the brake lines are all bent out of place, and why everything is all loose under there.

response - "it was like that because of the rust, there were no clips. we had to bent the lines to get them to fit"



So now im looking at fixing/replacing fuel lines. Is this a hard job? Is it much harder then changing the hard brake lines? Was the owner right saying its a harder job, or was he just bs'ing me? Can i just cut the rusted lines out, get black lines from napa and patch new lines in?

Is there anything i can do because like i said, the car is in worse shape now than when i dropped it off?


this is my other celica to compare the way the lines are routed



this is my car after the shop





this is after sitting for less than a minute


This post has been edited by 6gsillyca: Mar 30, 2007 - 12:14 PM

[6gsillyca]

What do I need to do with the fill tube?. Im going to try and do it over the long weekend.

[mr-belowaverage]

Late to this thread, but I need to replace my fuel tank. How do I manage the pump wiring etc that is tied up to it? If I drop the tank, am I going to pull all that stuff down and break it? Do I need to go in through the top to remove the fuel pump and wiring first?

Is there a decent tank how-to or walk-through somewhere? I couldn't find it, and it's not in the service manual.