school boy

yea, they're a big problem

champ7

2 Questions if you catch this in the early stag when its just a crack can this be fixed with the gas tank repair kit they sell at parts stores and if you have to replace the filler tube do you have to drop the tank to do this. Thanks

cliffyk

The issue is not "cracking", it is rust happening from the outside-in. Depending on the depth of the corrosion you might be able to catch it in time and some sort "kit" to arrest the process.

Step one in the shop manual is "remove the fuel tank", however I thought I saw a thread somewhere in which an innovative soul had replaced it without pulling the tank.

Also, FWIW, when this alert was first posted last Fall I removed the plastic sheath at the next opportunity. On my car, having lived in Florida its whole life, the tube looked almost like new.

2ponys

Glad this thread came back i'll have to check both my cars when I get home from work. thanks for the info.

champ7

Thanks for the reply cliff , read up on some more post on here , sounds like you can do it with out pulling tank completely out, just dropping the fuel filler side, now I got to just get the time to get my daughters stang here so I can look it over, I guess I will start by pulling plastic of and see if that is where it leaks from. Where is the best price and quality part to replace this with , should you stick with OEM and ford, seen ebay has a few listed for around $150 plus shipping that are ford OEM. Thanks for help Steve

2ponys

Took the plastic off both cars my 01 looks good the 02 is pretty rusty it did come from maine though will have to keep an eye on it, thanks again for reposting this thread.

Martinarcher64

This is interesting. I'll check mine out tonight. Why did ford think the plastic shield was needed?

champ7

Just got to look at my daughters stang, cut the plastic off and the rust just come falling out, poured some gas down filler tube and seen 2 spots where its leaking pin holes but need to replace called ford dealer here they want $208 for the filler assembly and $20 for the seal, seen ebay has some better prices, going to call back for possible discount at ford, anyone find any better prices online let me know. Thanks Steve

StangKid018

Wow, amazing how much sand and dirt collects in that thing... I took mine off just a few minutes ago and i just got a small rust spot but nothing major.. I'd assume they felt it was close to the exhaust tip for heat reasons but nothing that would do any harm imo.. good write up man.

cliffyk

I vote for an "in-your-face" sticky on this.

As I said earlier I went out and cut the condom off of mine the morning after I read the original posting--I strongly recommend that anyone reading this for the first time do the same, time is rust's best friend...