[cyberegreen]

Hello, I am a regular visitor to this broad. This is my first post here. I am sorry this message is pretty long, but I would like you guy aware of this situation... I have had my 05 RAV4 since January. I have been driving this car on highway and local (basically never have off road)

Last Friday, I parked my car after work in the parking lot. Until Sunday I wanted to go out. I started my car. It couldn't start. I tried again, wasn't start and I smelled very strong gasoline smell. I walked around and found out the fuel hose (black rubber hose parallel to the car door) underneath (2nd row on driver's side) was broken and dripping gasoline. At the beginning I thought there may be somebody cut my hose. I called police to come check it. Firefighter came over and said it wasn't look like someone cut it. I towed my car to dealership next day, they checked it and said I have hit something and caused the hose broken and required to change three parts of fuel line. And it wasn't a defect and won't cover by warranty. It costed me $450 to fix it. I asked them to show me the evidence of scratch. They pointed out the lower point of driver's side suspension was scratched. And the inner V shape of suspension has minor scratches. The area around where the fuel hose was broken didn't show any scratch at all.

I called to Toyota corp to complain my situation. The CS called my dealership and returned to me that it was hit by something and asked me to claim my insurance.

I was really upset. Because I didn't think I have hit something to cause this problem. And how could a SUV so fragile. I knew RAV4 is only for very light offroad driving, but I have never drive on any offroad. It is pretty high clearance compared to sedan. I can't imagine if it can happen!! If it's happened while I am driving on highway and all the sudden it breaks, I will be in fire.

I did check if any recall for other cars regarding fuel hose damage. The recent one was the recall of 2003 Tacoma. Which has a potential fuel hose leakage while performing side impact testing in NHTSA. Toyota recalled this car to put a protector on fuel hose.

I think Toyota should recall our cars to put the protector on the fuel hose!!! I have filed a complain in NHTSA website. I do think Toyota should be responsible for our safety :evil:

Cyberegreen

 

[RAVMAN]

WOW... sorry to hear of your fuel line problem. This is the first time I'm ever heard of any problem like this happening with a RAV4. Any chance you took PHOTOS of the damaged fuel line and alleged damaged area of your vehicle. :shock:

They pointed out the lower point of driver's side suspension was scratched. And the inner V shape of suspension has minor scratches.

From the above quote... it appears your RAV4 did hit/drag on something. Does anybody else EVER drive your RAV4? :?

 

[rav4_at]

I have to agree that is an odd one. It is really disappointing for Toyota or the dealership to just blame you and ask you to pay for it.
They always have an excuse to lay blame, never a"thats strange, lets cover it under warranty"

I take my RAV offroad all the time and in order for you to take out the fuel hose or anything else that high up you would have to take a big hit on a rock or perhaps wood(logs etc) and YOU WOULD NOTICE that.

Though perhaps a more logical explanation since you dont offroad is that a flying rock unleashed by the front wheels could do some damage, that is possible(toyota mudguards are not large enough in my opinion or long enough). I always hear the stones on a gravel road ding and clunk underneath like crazy. My rocker panels look like they were shot up at a firing range. I will be installing larger mud guards to try and deflect them down.

Just a thought.

 

[VeroLAN]

I may take a look at mine this weekend, sounds like something that I could put a protector on myself, won't know until I can take a look at it... if I decide to I'll post a how-to.

 

[RAVon]

Similar Situation

Sorry to hear about the inconvenience. This sounds like a similar situation.

http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0509/19/niss-319759.htm


Ravon~* 8)

 

[cyberegreen]

Get a call from Toyota corp

Got a call from Toyota corp today. They promised me to order the parts asap. But today they told me that parts are not available in the US and need to request an order and will take longer to get it here.

It made me even so upset!! How come there is no spare part in the U.S.!! At least they should keep uncommon stock supply good enough for one Rav4.

I forgot to shoot some pictures before towing to dealership. I can find a picture of Rav4 and pinpoint where the broken part was.

BTW, when you guys have a chance, can you post whether the fuel line (whole or part of it) made by black rubber hose? My co-worker told me that most of fuel line are made by metal.

I will post more updates here.

Thanks.

Cyberegreen

 

[Bluenoser]

I agree with some of the others, if no one was stealing gas......, then I suspect you may have run over something and it was flung up and hit the underside of the vehicle, accounting for the other marks on the underside. Jusy a fluke that it hit the gas line in such a way to rupture it..........
Then again wouldn't you smell gas when you exited the Rav, as the fuel pump would have been pushing it out...... Maybe someone was stealing gas and the other damage has nothing to do with the leak......
There have been a lot of ppl drilling into tanks with cordless drills up here since gas went up, resulting in 2 totalled pickups due to fires........pickups and SUV's because they're high off the ground for getting a container under.....
Re the Murano leaks, I agree it could happen to Rav's very easily....happened to be looking at the tank(s) last nite and one side is protected by sheet metal and the other side by plastic.......and I hear stuff rattling around in the wheel wells all the time....... Law of averages says it has to happen sometime to someone.........

 

[cyberegreen]

It wasn't a clear cut on the hose. That's why the firefighter eliminated any fault on it. And gasoline wasn't dripping until I tried to start my car. People told me that fuel pump won't let gas pass thru fuel hose unless you start it up. If people tried to steal gas they would drip a hole on gas tank to drain it out.

My concern is the car design. If it's a light offroad car, shouldn't the fuel line be protected or hide it well enough to avoid flying object hit on it?

Cyberegreen

 

[rav4_at]

Well you would think that the RAV4 would be designed to withstand some offroad debris(as toyota states in the manual, the RAV4 meets most offroad requirements).

But you dont have to go offroad to have debris or other objects attack some part of your underbody. That is why I would find it very disturbing to know that something like a fuel line or any vulnerable system(non-metal) to be in harms way regardless of whether or not the vehicle was designed to offroad or not. Anything around the wheel wells will definately be attacked by debris of all sorts so considering the fuel tank in near the rear wheels, things like fuel lines, tank etc should be protected you would think.

I am gonna take a look underneath my RAV to see where things are and look for the fuel line.

 

[cyberegreen]

I was really upset. My car is still at the dealership. 2 out of 3 parts were received at the dealership. The last one is still not yet received. It has been 2+ weeks to wait for my car fixed. I left my car there on 09/20.

Today I called the Toyota corp again to check the status of last part. He told me there was a delay due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. (What?!). I asked if this part is in the U.S.A., he said no. It is still waiting to ship from supplier out of the U.S.A. Then I said how could it related to the Hurricanes if this part is not in the U.S.A.? He said the system showed part should be in on Oct 10!! It kept delaying the promising date!!

I requested to have a loan car from Toyota because I have been waiting for such a long time for parts to ship to dealersip. And they didn't get me a definite date to ship this part to dealership. The rep told me it wasn't due to defected from Toyota, therefore, they won't loan a car to me. I kept argued with him that the waiting time is so unreasonable and Toyota should at least stock up some parts in the U.S.A.

He said if this part is not yet arrived on Oct 10, then he will review this case and consider further action.

I was so upset. I want to know if I can file a consumer complaint regarding the indefinite waiting time for Toyota service. Can anyone help me out? Thanks in advance.

Cyberegreen

 

[zoomie]

Yes, there IS something you can do. You can call the media. Have it on television. Recently a friend of mine had something that was supposed to be replaced/fixed by a company but a yr had passed and it still wasn't fixed. With so many people involved in the system and therefore no one really held accountable, nothing got done. My friend was recommended to contact the media to have a story out. This may get other people who have perhaps experienced the same thing to come forward.