still007

sorry to revive a thread but the only way we can make Toyota do a campaign is to file a complaint to the national highway traffic safety association if the complaints show a trend something will happen. the screw wiggled out on my 4runner and the same thing happened to a friends Camry which caused a fuel leak.

scope103

The screw doesn't have anything to do with the leak; it's a pressure indicator. You can unscrew it and throw it away if it bothers you. The leak is caused by 20-yr old rubber.

You can, of course, file any complaint that you want. But insisting that a every component of a car is SUPPOSED to last more than 20 years seems like a stretch.

still007

I did not say a Recall is in order I would be happy for a service bulletin that would only take up an hour of one of Toyota's employee time writing and submitting it. is that too much to ask for something that could affect our safety.

scope103

Okay, if it's not a defect, no recall is in order.

A service bulletin (which unlike a "recall" is not required by any statute) is generally a way for a manufacturer to communicate important details to their dealers, and to a lesser degree to the public. They are never required by NHTSA, and instead are issued by the manufacturer, probably as part of their customer service.

I am curious what you think such a service bulletin would say. That if the customer complains of a gasoline smell, look for leaks in the fuel system?

I get the sense that you agree with many of us that the Toyota fuel system is so reliable that leaks, even in a 20-yr old vehicle, are very rare. Not surprisingly to any mechanic, most of the leaks that do happen are in the rubber (the fuel pressure damper diaphragm, the o-rings on the injectors, the flex line to the CSI, ...) and not in the metal. What would your service bulletin add to that?

still007

To scope103 the bulitin would say that the fuel pulsation dampener adjustment screw has a propensity to wiggle loose when it does the dampener needs to be replaced since the rubber in the dampener is likely to leak if it is not already. Since the screw had been loctite in it tends to wiggle loose around the time it should be replaced. From researching and talking
To other toy owners when the screw wiggled loose there was either a geyser coming from the hole or the adjustment is never the same since it is calibrated for life at the factory and wiggles loose again in less than one week anyways. If you want to debate why there is a screw on the dampener check out this article http://www.motor.com/magazine/pdfs/012004_08.pdf

clange

Hello! Let's revive this old thread! I too have had the fuel damper go out on mine and am in the process of replacing it. The smell had been annoying my wife and I for some time and I could not locate the source...until i found numerous threads related to this issue. It is seriously a major safety issue and has been occurring for quite some time. I located some documents on the NHTSA website dating from 1997 when this issue was discovered. I have filed a complaint too, even though it is an old vehicle. Here is the link:

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/cmpl/1997/CL-521145-YN.PDF

scope103

Seriously? You smelled GASOLINE for years but kept driving the truck? (until the wife complained about it)

And now you're complaining to NHTSA that your truck had a part that didn't last for 30 years?

I hope NHTSA has better things to do with my tax money.

clange

Ha ha....No silly. I've had the truck since February of 2018 and have only smelled the fuel for approximately a month. I am also aware that it's an old vehicle (1993). The problem is that these failures, the location of the failures (over an exhaust pipe) and propensity for a fire to start because of the failure, is the reason for my reporting. The link I shared on this thread contained a letter written in 1997 by an owner of a 1991 with Fuel Pulsating Damper failure. This is not a new problem or one that occurs with older parts. This is a problem which occurred with vehicles only 5-6 years old too. It is something that owners of these rigs need to be aware of at the very least. I was not aware of these issues until I began to smell the fuel and searched online. This could be a life or death issue...without the hyperbole.