No, you need to replace that hose. It's a major cause of gas smell in the cabin. And a fire hazard.

 

Replace all of the breather hoses - they are way past due.

 

Agree. The main hose between the tanks is new. But it's the short ones in the photo are old. But it's since the access to them. How?

 

Sorry. Meant to say, still no access to shorter hoses like the pictures indicated.

 

You SHOULD be able to access all of the vinyl hose, pictured. Replace it with Tygon tubing, which is more flexible than rubber fuel line.

Remove the solenoids blocking the way....See the Philips (Posidrive, actually) screws on the RH sail panel in the pic below? On an S4s, supporting the trunk floor by the hatch can provide additional access, too.

 

Yes I agree. Except what I need better access to is the area above the air cleaner and gas filler pipe.

 

Unless you're an octopus, you may have more success by removing the roll-over valve first, then re-make the pipework, climb in and go for it. *It's difficult, but if I managed it, you can do it, too.

*Sorry, that sounds like some kind of motivational clap-trap.

 

Removing the roll over valve (ROV) is an engine-out task. 🤪 OK, maybe not, but it certainly was installed by Lotus BEFORE the drivetrain was in the way.

Reinstalling the ROV is easier if you attach the nuts onto the mounting bracket. Otherwise you will be adding unnecessary weight to your Esprit when you drop 50 or more pieces of hardware into the gap between the LH gas tank and the body! <---the voice of experience



PS: As an experienced Esprit shadetree mechanic, I placed towels under the ROV to catch the hardware when it fell. What I SHOULD have done was tape several magnets on top of the towels so that the washers and nuts would still come out when the towels were removed... ☹
Don't EVER throw those extra Rock Auto picture magnets away, when you accumulate duplicates.

 

Hard drive magnets. That's what you want to use. Uses are limitless. I mean, what else were you going to do with old hard drives?

 

The roll over valve is what I'm fighting with now. Seriously hard to get to.

 

Hang in there. Skin does grow back, eventually.

 

Will do. Already took off the back of my hand.

 

Mechanics gloves are a thing. Some even have magnets in the fingertips.

 

Mechanics gloves are a thing. Some even have magnets in the fingertips.

Yeah, but do those magnets allow you to swipe/control a smartphone when taking a break? I'm NOT a cave-man. 😆

 

I prefer the ones fitted with an eye on the end of each finger.

 

Well.
Finally got the gas breather hose replaced running from the filler pipe to the roll over valve. It's a short distance but what a b__ch! It was like standing on your head and working in a mail box. 🤪Even installed an inline restrictor.

 

Late to the party but I remove the valve from the car, install new hoses, then install the valve onto the car, then connect the other ends of the hoses. Even then, you still do it by feel.

 

Reviving an older thread rather than start a new one as I have a simple question. I'm getting a mid-strong fuel smell in my garage after my '86 G car cools down. It is not in the passenger compartment but all around the engine compartment (and by extension my whole garage). I'm planning on checking and replacing the vent hoses under the RH sail panel this weekend but likely won't get to the crossover vent hose. From reviewing posts on here it appears when the crossover vent hose is bad the majority of the fumes are in the passenger compartment, is that correct? If so I'll defer that replacement to a later job.

 

From reviewing posts on here it appears when the crossover vent hose is bad the majority of the fumes are in the passenger compartment, is that correct?

The "Lotus Perfume" in the passenger compartment occurs because the fumes are sucked in through the seat belt openings in the rear bulkhead. So the smell would be most apparent when driving.

We eliminated that scenario by installing seals/gaskets on the seatbelt reel covers, that are above each gas tank.



The crossover vent hose is on the engine bay side of the rear bulkhead.

 

Check your gas cap gaskets and the bottoms of your gas tanks as well as the vent hoses. I would also give the crossover pipe hoses a good squeeze as well.

 

Thank you all for your replies. I'll be digging into it this weekend. I see no signs of leaking gas tanks so hopefully it's just a rotten vent hose connector or two. The smell isn't overwhelming, just strong enough that it's obvious something isn't right.