Yesterday I noticed a weird fuel leak under the back passenger side wheel well coming from a ruber hose. I thought it was nothing, and continuing shoveling out my yard. Today, I look again and it's there. I don't think I overfilled the tank, and it's not alot of fuel. Any clue what it could be?

Brake fluid? Or it could be your vent hose for the fuel tank, leaking. Hard to say at a distance.

Probably one of the lines feed/return to the tank. Rubber got old and cracked. Fairly simple to replace but messy. Try to siphon all the fuel out of the tank, pull the offending line and drain the fuel into a container. Replace line, might as well do the others there as well, likely they aren't in much better shape. RT

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When all else fails, vote from the rooftops!
84' Mercedes Benz 300D Anthracite/black, 171K
03' Volkswagen Jetta TDI blue/black, 93K
93' Chevrolet C2500HD ExCab 6.5TD, Two-tone blue, 252K

KylePavao,

It is the vent line, and it runs to the little separator vessel in the trunk, then out the vent line you see. It mya be an artifact of the weather and an older incident of overfilling the tank. When I get home I can try to look it up in the manual, but there is a small black cannister in the trunk on that side of the car behind the plastic trim along the fender. It has two lines from the tank and one coming out that goes to the point where you see leakage. The vent is needed to allow air into the tank as you use the fuel. My father in law had his get old and the rubber tube connectors collapsed and sealed the vent line off. This lead to really peculiar fuel gage and reserve light behaviour, and a filler cap that would not come off.

I think the cannnister is supposed to allow the foaming Diesel at fill up and any that is created when is sloshes around in the tank, to return to liquid Diesel fuel and drain back to the tank. If yours is somehow plugged up, a problem with the vent function is likely not far behind. The lines are relatively easy to replace, or have replaced. I do not think they involve needing to drain the tank as I believe they come off the top. Good luck, Jim

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Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

I had the same problem with my 240D a few years ago. Turned out that the fuel lines were rusted enough that they were allowing fuel to seep out and puddle on the garage floor. I really didn't want to replace the entire lengths of fuel line, so I cut out the bad sections and put in a piece of rubber fuel hose and clamped it in place. It's been holding well for a couple of years. The corrosion occurred where the fuel lines went over the rear trailing arm. The trailing arm had to be dropped for me to reach everything.

Len