Thread could also be called "Dodged *That* Bullet".
My 1986 E30 320i M20B20 has been turn-key reliable the last few years except for a slow battery drain that developed last year. Because I need it tomorrow and I've been away for two weeks, tonight I went to check for start and got a slow crank so the battery needed charging. The way it's parked in my garage I have to lean across the engine bay to connect the charger to the battery on the right side of the engine bay (M20B20). Connected the charger leads and as I stood up from that I got a smell of gas.
There was a running seep, an active drip, at the fuel rail connection where the hose from the fuel filter (M20B20- a canister on the left fender wall) connects. You know, just above the exhaust manifold?
That hose and all the other fuel hoses except the unreachable over the tank are less than 5 years old, installed by me or by my "Fack, let Them do it" garage. That particular connection was dry when I took the car out of winter storage in April. There's a piss-poor bulb on the connection nipple, and I knew that. My spare rail has just as poor a nipple, probably yours does too.
And so begins my rant, or warning to the community: Aside from small turbo-charged Continental engines in aircraft (F*k you TSIO 360! Yes! You!), in all my 40 years of wrenching, I've never seen an fuel installation so prone to sudden fuel leaks as this E30 and its predecessor 1989 325is. So, check your connections, change your hoses and check your connections again. Any whiff of gas and get looking. The little o-rings at the injector to manifold connection are a good place to start. They'll be dry after a drive, but if you pop the hood just after start or after it's parked for about 45 minutes you'll catch the little bastards in the act. Cylinder 4 will be the leaky one, because gas leaks like to hide.
Gas leaks are sneaky. If it looks damp assume it's a leak. Clean up with plastic-safe contact cleaner (or varsol or bizarrely, gas) and compressed air. Make sure it's all totally dry and clean, be willing to swear to its dryness, then pressurize the system. If it looks damp after pressure, you have a leak.
Any other places you've found for gas leaks I should be looking at when I re-squint at the suicidal Valhalla-seeking little fecker this weekend?
(Fire extinguisher in trunk, btw.)
My 1986 E30 320i M20B20 has been turn-key reliable the last few years except for a slow battery drain that developed last year. Because I need it tomorrow and I've been away for two weeks, tonight I went to check for start and got a slow crank so the battery needed charging. The way it's parked in my garage I have to lean across the engine bay to connect the charger to the battery on the right side of the engine bay (M20B20). Connected the charger leads and as I stood up from that I got a smell of gas.
There was a running seep, an active drip, at the fuel rail connection where the hose from the fuel filter (M20B20- a canister on the left fender wall) connects. You know, just above the exhaust manifold?
That hose and all the other fuel hoses except the unreachable over the tank are less than 5 years old, installed by me or by my "Fack, let Them do it" garage. That particular connection was dry when I took the car out of winter storage in April. There's a piss-poor bulb on the connection nipple, and I knew that. My spare rail has just as poor a nipple, probably yours does too.
And so begins my rant, or warning to the community: Aside from small turbo-charged Continental engines in aircraft (F*k you TSIO 360! Yes! You!), in all my 40 years of wrenching, I've never seen an fuel installation so prone to sudden fuel leaks as this E30 and its predecessor 1989 325is. So, check your connections, change your hoses and check your connections again. Any whiff of gas and get looking. The little o-rings at the injector to manifold connection are a good place to start. They'll be dry after a drive, but if you pop the hood just after start or after it's parked for about 45 minutes you'll catch the little bastards in the act. Cylinder 4 will be the leaky one, because gas leaks like to hide.
Gas leaks are sneaky. If it looks damp assume it's a leak. Clean up with plastic-safe contact cleaner (or varsol or bizarrely, gas) and compressed air. Make sure it's all totally dry and clean, be willing to swear to its dryness, then pressurize the system. If it looks damp after pressure, you have a leak.
Any other places you've found for gas leaks I should be looking at when I re-squint at the suicidal Valhalla-seeking little fecker this weekend?
(Fire extinguisher in trunk, btw.)
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