Save yourself up to $200 and some headaches - Electric Fuel Pump PM

I'd sure try to get that fuel lower before I open up that hatch. When the gas spills over, you'll never be able to wipe it down from everywhere it wets. In addition to a short term fire hazard, you'll be smelling gasoline for months to come.
Cannot you try to siphon/pump off some gas before you do the surgery?

Originally Posted by Stinger9

I'd sure try to get that fuel lower before I open up that hatch. When the gas spills over, you'll never be able to wipe it down from everywhere it wets. In addition to a short term fire hazard, you'll be smelling gasoline for months to come.
Cannot you try to siphon/pump off some gas before you do the surgery?

There is a plate in the filler pipe to prevent siphoning of fuel and as the pump is dead, how can I pump any out?

As the tank is below the floor and there is an effective seal in the seat base so no smells can enter the car.

A few miles and air flowing over the tank removes all traces of fuel and smell. Been in there before (with spillage from a badly placed fuel pump seal).

Originally Posted by TitanSilverE46

There is a plate in the filler pipe to prevent siphoning of fuel and as the pump is dead, how can I pump any out?

As the tank is below the floor and there is an effective seal in the seat base so no smells can enter the car.

A few miles and air flowing over the tank removes all traces of fuel and smell. Been in there before (with spillage from a badly placed fuel pump seal).

I've heard of the blocking plate before. Not sure there is not a way around this.

Wonder if you could put a hose onto the fuel pump tube and pump it out that way?

When my car was flooding because of leaky fuel injectors, I could smell gas when it spit out the exhaust. I do not have faith in getting away from the odor.

Good luck for sure, and I hope you come back and tell us how you made out!

Ha, seems to me my turn now. Today I was picking up my daughter from acrobatics. I drove from work to her gym, turned off the engine. I picked up my daughter and started the engine. It started, but died in 5 seconds. I thought "oops! did I release clutch to early?". Nope. Next attempt to start and car refused to start at all. I made several attempts, engine cranks and sometimes even almost starts, but died immediately. I started to look for the phone number of my road side assistance plan, found it and before calling I decided to try once again. This time it started like nothing happened, no EML/SES, nothing. I drove home, connected PASoft to read shadow error codes - nothing. I started the engine several times after this incident and everything works.
BTW, the fuel level is 1/4 of tank. Gonna add another 1/4 while waiting for new pump to arrive.
Car is 2001 330ci, 160Kmiles, but seems like the fuel pump was already replaced (the rubber cover is cut), but it might be replaced a looong time ago, so it is time for a new fuel pump. I already have new fuel filter installed (about 5Kmiles old). Ordered new pump and gasket from bmaparts.

I described my plight in post 600 of this thread.

Rolled the car out onto the gravel drive to replace the fuel pump this morning. Checked new pump and found it whirred nicely. Then unscrewed the ring and removed the old pump. Very pleasant surprise that the fuel was just up to the lip so I lost none
We had driven about 68km so probably 6 litres down.

Switching pumps was a breeze. Carefully fitted the new gasket ensuring it bedded in properly under the lip before lowering the pump in. Float first and then each side of the filter and finally the rest of the body making doubly sure at each stage that the gasket was not disturbed. Then with a little pressure and the top of the pump bedded down inside the gasket and the ring dropped on and screwed up nicely. Barely 15mins all up.

Now the problem.
Where before the cranking was steady with no sign of firing, now I had that 'almost ready to go' but not. Checked the fuel rail again and I had pressure so pump was working.

I must have tried 20 times but no joy, so I ended up ringing my Indy (Dean at Peninsula BM .. plug .. plug!) for advice.

"Ah... ", he said. "What has happened is that with all that cranking you have de-pressurised the hydraulic lifters and the valves do not open. You effectively have no compression."
He then went on to tell me to connect jumper leads to another vehicle and with it running, continue to crank the car without stopping and slowly slowly it would come to life.

It probably needed a full 30 seconds of cranking which seems an eternity but finally it 'took' enough to stop cranking and give it a little throttle. Slowly it came to life.

"Now take it for a run and cane it a bit", he said.

Hopefully this extra bit of advice will help someone who is scratching his head as to what to do next.

I guess I had better look at my other E46 which also has 200,000km (125,000mls) on its original fuel pump. I haven't had the email from it yet

Good tidbit to know. I should have all parts to install my new pump tomorrow. I would be lost if it didn't start after, and you didn't post this. Thanks

Sent from my Galaxy 10.1 Tablet on bimmer app.

Last tip ...

No matter how well you BELIEVE you have seated the new pump, before you replace the cover plate and replace the back seat, DO go down to the servo and fill up.

With the back seat out you can look in the open rear door and observe if you have any leaks or weeping and stop before 10 galls of fuel are lost on the servo forecourt

Just for that final peace of mind, particularly if you are handing keys back to your wife/girlfriend/daughter etc

What would they do when gallons of fuel start flooding out from underneath?

With that check complete, replace the plate, rubber cable seal and rear seat. Put you feet up and have a beer ... another job well done

Who's the servo?

Originally Posted by Stinger9

Who's the servo?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servo

Kidding. This: http://australiandictionary.net/servo

Originally Posted by Stinger9

Who's the servo?

Two nations separated by a common language

No offense taken, Stingo !

All my mates, Johno, Stevo, Rosco, Davo, Dano and Thomo know what a Servo is!

Knew from the context. Just havin' fun.

Today I've received a pump and a seal from bmaparts.com (total $136, free AND FAST! shipping) and already have replaced the pump. I found out that my pump was ORIGINAL, even though rubber cover had broken tabs! Production date is 02/2000 and it lasted 160000 miles:

BTW, you can tell if the pump is original or not by having a look at the clamp on a fuel line. If it is like the one on the pic above - the pump is most likely original.

One more note: even though I removed the fuse F54 (fuel pump fuse) and ran engine till it dies I still got fuel spray once I disconnected the fuel line from the old pump. So be aware of this.

Installed the new pump and drove to a gas station ('servo' ) and filled the gas tank fully. No leaks.

All what it needs - to get rid the gas smell from the cabin (remember the fuel spray?). And I have slight headache now, because of fuel fumes, but job is done.

Nicely done and illustrated.
And now you reminded me, you could also tell if original by seeing if the seal is broken. The factory puts that glop there to prevent the ring from loosening.

Curious how YMMV because I did not remove the fuse or disconnect the battery or run the engine out of fuel, and I got zero spray. I did put a cloth over the connection as I pulled off the hose.

I think a little gasoline spilled goes a long way. Are you still convinced that if you flowed gas over the tank you'd not have the odor to deal with?

Maybe I got the spray because I just came back from work, found a package with the pump delivered, and decided to replace it right away. And, maybe, you did yours after the car rested in the garage for a night, for example, so the pressure went away already.

* double post

140k, started then died last night, worked ok all day today since 9 am, then at 2 pm started then sputtered to a hault again, subsequent attempts allowed a crank, start, sputter and die. everytime. now my car is sitting at the local grocer and I am running late for work.

BMW listed $366 plus tax for the pump, HAHAA NO. BMA parts it is.

Is there a fuel pump insert available?? I.E. Does anyone know who makes the actual pump inside the fuel pump housing??

I think, VDO. Or Siemens

Just buy the pump/sending unit combo, the sending units also go bad as well.

Make the swap a 20 minute job if you all the tools and the seat out, no fighting with a pump that does not fit the sending unit. Also if you do not get things right the pump will be noisy.

Originally Posted by jfoj

Just buy the pump/sending unit combo, the sending units also go bad as well.

+1
Let's not go back too far to the basics. Next we'll be looking to cast our own blocks!