Wtf? fuel cooling?

[Lof8]

While troubleshooting some fuel issues, I found that my car has (had) a weird fuel cooling system. The fuel line came up to the engine bay from the tank and then was routed across the top of the firewall. Over on the passenger side, the line connected to a bulge around one of the A/C lines. It is then routed back to the driver's side and over to the fuel rail.

I have not seen anything about this system in any of my 3 years of reading here. A search turned up one very short thread that mentioned it.

Does anyone have any input on this system? It seems a bit retarded to me.

Seen here across the top of the firewall:

[rThor432]

Yep, this is a 6 month or so production special that is nice in theory, but in reality it presents more problems than it is worth. My 9/86 325eS had it as did my 1/87 325iS. I deleted it on both.

I did a bit of research on it a few years ago. Basically [in theory] in hot weather (when you have the A/C on) it cools the fuel that is returning to the tank to help keep evap and pressure build-up to a minimum. <-- This statement is iirc, it's been a while.. In reality the pipes fail and cause fuel to leak into your A/C system.