Fuel line leak

An NHTSA Preliminary Evaluation into Subaru vehicles. Closed 2 July 2009.

Investigation
PE09017
Type
Preliminary Evaluation
Opened
10 March 2009
Closed
2 July 2009

What NHTSA investigated

Complainants report fuel leakage most frequently in winter during initial cold engine startup.owners will either notice a fuel odor inside the occupant compartment or fuel odor/leakage at the fuel lines on the right side atop the engine. Once the engine has warmed, the odor/leakage may cease.subaru revised the fuel pipe/hose design for model year (my) 2003-04 wrx vehicles produced after august 2003.SUBARU also introduced a my 2004 impreza sti vehicle with a different engine and fuel pipe/hose layout.out of the total of 994 complaints, 944 concern my 2002-03 wrx vehicles built through august 2003.SUBARU also reports one fire on a my 2002 wrx vehicle that occurred in february 2006.IN march 2009, odi inspected and video taped a my 2002 wrx vehicle with a fuel leak during cold engine start up.the video was provided to subaru and is in the investigation file. This investigation is being upgraded to an engineering analysis (EA09-011) to further study this issue.

Vehicles covered

MakeModelModel years
SubaruIMPREZA2002–2004
SubaruWRX2002–2004

Source

From NHTSA’s investigation file, rebuilt daily. To report a problem with your own vehicle, go to nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem. All open investigations.