[rince out]

Hi great forums here iam Allen from london u.k,i have a E36 316I as this is mainly? a u.s site i beleive the E36 316i was not avalible to the u.s? only the 318I onwards.Iam maily a ford person(plz dont shout at me lol) but my 2.5 V6 was getting to pricey to run here in the uk hence the 316I its my first beemer and i have my first problem... on idle i could smell fuel and at red lights, stops etc but driving there was nothing i know this as the smell would come through the heater vents on idle, ive now found out its 2 fuel injectors leaking as 2 are visibly damp,so on wensday its going to a honest priced machanic whom is a friend of a friend he has 40 experence so he knows what hes doing he is going to replace ALL the O seals (O rings) on the injectors and give them a clean and that should sort that, its only costing me £60 BMW was asking £84 a hour without parts and for them to waste a hour finding the problem even though i coud tell them,in the uk we seem to steer clear of the dealer garages for repairs as they are a rip off! the job is about 2 hours max so iam getting a good service just seems ages away till wensday and ive only had the car a week but looking forword to getter her back that afternoon. has any body else has the same problem with any car? and do u think i should change the fuel fillter to? Cheers Allen.

 

[allen85t]

Similar story, but don't read this if you're the paranoid/panicky type.. just get your service work done..

That said, I had an '85 nissan 300zx turbo for a while, it's still out in the driveway in fact under a cover, barely running. My friend in the passenger smelled fuel once or twice, I never did. Since it was always recently after I'd filled up, I thought it was just coming from that, since it's a hatchback and the fill receptacle is only a few feet behind the passenger seat.

One day I'm sitting in the car at a convenience store, talking on the cell phone with the engine idling, and I see faint wisps of smoke coming from the edges of the hood. I put the phone down, popped the hood, and flipped out. There was a fire on the block, and it wasn't a small one. Put the hood down to help cut the air supply, ran into the store for their fire extinguisher, and put the fire out.

It turns out that these cars (84-89) had a TSB in the early 90s which is one step short of a full blown recall for Nissan. The detergent additives to gasoline they started adding were corrosive to the seals in the fuel system -- so the fuel pressure regulator, fuel rails, and injector seals were all shot and fuel ended up spraying around the engine compartment.

The damage done was relatively minor, but it has still been a major pain in the neck to get running again -- it's my project car. Mostly because the wiring harness in the engine was completely destroyed by the fire, and tracking down problems there isn't easy, nor is getting replacements. It runs now, though it won't get above 2k rpm, so something is still wrong.. probably the AFM/MAS, the wiring to/from it, or the ECU.

Anyway, that's my story with "smelling fuel." Get yours checked out as soon as you can, and drive it as little as possible between now and then. You don't want to end up in the situation I'm in with this car.

 

[rince out]

Thanks for the reply, i havent drove the car since friday,i was told about the injectors on thursday,i washed the car friday as weather was nice so i was tempted to go our in it,but after a few miles i had to bring it home as i just was thinking bad thoughts,iam not good with pataince but iam going to have to be as i dont want to ruin a nice car just for the sake of posing!! after wensday i can do all the posing i like and be safe shame about your car,but glad everything is getting back to normal, i got a bottle of bourbon and a few blunts to keep me locked down till wensday, not nice to look out the window and see your gleeming bmw sitting there helpless.....