Fuel Smell on 575M 135171 is Cracked Left Fuel Pump Cover

Terry, The 575 cover has an inline pressure regulator incorporated. It would be easy to use a different inline pressure regulator in the internal hose. The hard part is the making electrical pass through fuel proof.

We didn't like the way they did it on the 550 metal covers so I made our own.

I don't know if demand would justify production costs

 

Recently had both of my 575 fuel pumps replaced for leaking covers. FWIW, new fuel pumps are very scarce.

Steve

 

Taz thanks for the post. Any problem with supply on these or was it maybe just the old number that was difficult to find?
Bill
FL

 

Terry, four years ago when I did our conversion I bought 4 of them from Ferrparts for $ 460 ea.

I'm sorry now that I didn't save the covers for you. I just couldn't see how they could fail as there is no stress of them unlike the 550 covers.

Your tech is correct, it's a bit of a chore to replace the hoses but it is doable, just need new hoses and a heat gun.

My concern now would be the ring nut, I assume it's plastic as well.

 

Thanks Taz.
I have found that the commonly known problems for the 575's seem to work their way through most if not all the cars. At least that's the way it seems to read. And one by one they've come my way. Was about to add this to my worry list until the concept of ethanol possibly being a factor came up. My car hasn't seen ethanol since 2010. Perhaps it will be a test bed for that idea. Not going to put money on it but at least I can hope...
Bill
FL

 

Terry, Did you see the actual failure point? was it a crack, can you describe it?
The pressure regulator is thin metal fabrication cast in place as I recall. I know John wanted me to take one out but I was unable without destroying the regulator. I suspect a stress fracture related to the shrinking of the plastic over time. If that's the case there will be only more failures. I doubt ethanol is the contributing factor. Hopefully someone can gather some more information and discover the causal factor.

Coming up with a replacement metal cover wouldn't be that hard but it would be fairly expensive. Prototyping cost are heavy especially for a limited production item like this then there's the liability factor.

 

A few years back I had a fuel leak as well but it was not the pumps. The problem, a fitting on the fuel hose was leaking. Of course you just can't replace the fitting so we had to order a new hose. During the installation, due to the hose being new and inflexible, the fittings on both fuel pumps broke when they tried to attach it. And of course they are attached to the fuel pump so I was told. So of course I had to bend over and pay to replace two perfectly good fuel pumps. 5 weeks and $3,500 later I had my car back. I was told that there were signs that it had been leaking for a while, so all of you need to be cautious if you smell fuel, at the time the car had 37,000 miles on it.

 

Unfortunately, over time these fittings just become brittle

 

Taz, depending how involved you want to get, Amazon has dye penetrant kits or individual cans of the stuff for finding/highlighting cracks.

 

Coming from an Aviation background Google dye penetrant Kit there not expensive and you will be surprised what it will find, just follow the instructions.

 

Terry, did you notice the fuel smell in the cockpit or outside or both?

 

Crap, that's not what I wanted to hear - mine may have the same issue, then. According to Ferrari of Washington the fuel smell is only in the vicinity of the filler area. They were thinking maybe someone at the other dealership spilled a bit when fueling it up and "found no active leaks" but I doubt the inspection could go so far as to look at the tank and pumps.

It's going straight to the shop for the H20 temp sensor replacement, so I guess I'll know soon enough.