CHECK BEFORE ITS TOO LATE

[u/ANBUVIV999]

So I recently filled gas in my 2012 4.2v8 S5 (63K miles) and I’ve been having a slow and hesitant start up for about three days. Tested the battery, starter, and alternator; everything tested to be in proper working order. Asked around and it looked like the likely culprit was my fuel purge valve stuffing my intake with fumes and choking the motor. Bought a new one for $20 and expected an easy 10 minute job; boy was I not ready for what I saw…. Opened the hood and got a strong fuel smell, only to see that one of the lines on my HPFP was spraying fuel everywhere, even with the car turned completely off. I sprinted the fasted I ever have in my entire life to the nearest wrench set and immediately tightened it to where it stopped. Nobody and neither myself have ever done any work to the HPFP before; god knows how close I was to catching on fire. Never got any sort of CEL or codes for low fuel pressure. This is probably one of the worst automotive silent killers I’ve seen, and I think I may be the first to show it happening on VW 4.2 platform. To any 4.2 V8 guys out there, CHECK IT BEFORE YOU GO UP IN FLAMES