Cannot fill up gas tank

[AndrewBird]

The filler should have a flap that closes to cover the inlet. Did yours maybe break off?

This isn't an e30, but it would look like this:

[Van31]

I found the problem, was much simpler than dealing with the awkwardly placed expansion tank. A strange lid was in the pipe down from the filler tube, just before the tank about an inch diameter..
How long has it been there? Did something move it? I don't know, hopefully she'll fill up now.

[goldenbb]

Will be interested to hear the outcome of this one! My tank has a pretty good dent in the bottom, was wondering about some of these issues myself. My gas gauge seems to be pretty accurate, fwiw. I have to get the backlight working for the OBC to play around with that aspect of it.

[jlevie]

I managed to stick about 4 foot of garden hose pipe down the hole, is there an inline filter or something?

No filter. There is a metal pipe from the fender to about 1' from the tank. From there a hose goes to the tank. My suspicion would be an internal failure of the hose.

[Van31]

I managed to stick about 4 foot of garden hose pipe down the hole, is there an inline filter or something?

[jlevie]

That would probably something blocking the fill pipe/hose.

[Van31]

This is kind of related, I asked on another forum, to be told that the fuel vent is clogged.

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=736031

Is there an inline filter which may have grabbed some huge particle?
My fuel tank can be confirmed to be empty, I'm not just overfilling, the rear right hand side of the tank rings empty when tapped.

My tank is just above the empty mark, and when I go to fill up, I can put about 0.5 litres in before it will fill up the hole, the fuel will very slowly leak down, but at a rate that would take me about 5 minutes to get a litre down. In one of the many stations I went to, I got 1.12 litres in in about 8 minutes.

I can't drive my car, because I can't put any fuel in it.

Could someone please expand on the fuel vent? I've never played around with the fuel system in these cars. I have a wreck at home with all the spares i will probably need but that it about 600 km away.

I need to travel upto 2000km in the next two weeks, and any help would be appreciated.

[Classiks]

Ha. Guess what? It does. On everything after 9/87 the return line from the rail acts as a
suction pump to draw fuel out of the driver's side sump and over to to the pump on the
passenger's side. It's not technically a siphon, but it's often referred to as such.
On the E36, it comes out with the sender so you can see it- it's a pretty neat design.

It's how they get fuel over the saddle on later cars.

If that's not working, it'd leave 3-4 gallons on the driver's side.

But if it was me, I'd carry 5 gallons in the trunk, run the thing until it stopped, add the 5
to get to the gas station, and then see how much it REALLY takes.

If it THEN isn't taking 16, then it might be time to look at the suction system.
But like others, I'd mistrust the gauge before it. It's pretty simple and reliable.

Oh. Unless your fuel pump's almost dead. Then it might not be flowing enough
to draw the fuel out of the driver's side. But you'd probably have driviability problems
before that happened...

t

Toby that is really quite interesting because with my dented tank on the drivers side perhaps that siphoning actually isn't working and is leaving the 4 or so gallons which translates to 15 litres. Basically what I've been missing.

I'm also going to try what you suggested by running the tank completely empty with a jerry can in the back to get me to the pump and see exactly how much I can fill up.

Thanks again everyone

[jeffnhiscars]

I'm cross threaded.

<seguays to spectator mode>

[603Racing]

If your 205/50s are 16's they are very close to OE.

So your odometer is broken, fuel gauge is questionable, tires are swapped, speedo is out & the tank may or may not fill properly...and you are wondering about your fuel consumption.

I'm missing something here.

I'm not the one wondering about consumption, I was just supporting the comment on gauges being unrealiable when it comes to calculating fuel consumption. And my wheels are 15" FWIW.

[TobyB]

I'm quite sure that the pump does not move fuel from one side of the tank to the other on any e30

Ha. Guess what? It does. On everything after 9/87 the return line from the rail acts as a
suction pump to draw fuel out of the driver's side sump and over to to the pump on the
passenger's side. It's not technically a siphon, but it's often referred to as such.
On the E36, it comes out with the sender so you can see it- it's a pretty neat design.

It's how they get fuel over the saddle on later cars.

If that's not working, it'd leave 3-4 gallons on the driver's side.

But if it was me, I'd carry 5 gallons in the trunk, run the thing until it stopped, add the 5
to get to the gas station, and then see how much it REALLY takes.

If it THEN isn't taking 16, then it might be time to look at the suction system.
But like others, I'd mistrust the gauge before it. It's pretty simple and reliable.

Oh. Unless your fuel pump's almost dead. Then it might not be flowing enough
to draw the fuel out of the driver's side. But you'd probably have driviability problems
before that happened...

t

[jeffnhiscars]

^^^ Of course this assumes the odometer is accurate.;)

Comparing my odometer to my GPS and Google Maps it tracks about 16% less distance than it should. Odly enough, the speedo reads about 10% high. The speedo is likely due to my 205/50 tires. The odo... who knows, it's probably has a cracked gear that may also be missing teeth.

If your 205/50s are 16's they are very close to OE.

So your odometer is broken, fuel gauge is questionable, tires are swapped, speedo is out & the tank may or may not fill properly...and you are wondering about your fuel consumption.

I'm missing something here.

[603Racing]

^^^ Of course this assumes the odometer is accurate.;)

Comparing my odometer to my GPS and Google Maps it tracks about 16% less distance than it should. Odly enough, the speedo reads about 10% high. The speedo is likely due to my 205/50 tires. The odo... who knows, it's probably has a cracked gear that may also be missing teeth.

[jlevie]

I'm quite sure that the pump does not move fuel from one side of the tank to the other on any e30

55L tanks have a cross-over tube between the tank sections and returning fuel dropped into the right side of the tank. 63L tanks don't have a cross-over tube. Returning fuel goes to the lower left side of the tank and into a siphon that lifts fuel over the drive shaft hump.

[jeffnhiscars]

... late model cars as we utilize a single pump and some sophisticated tubing to syphon from one end of the tank to the other

I'm quite sure that the pump does not move fuel from one side of the tank to the other on any e30

Jeffnhiscars: I'm assuming the gauge is accurate because if it were not then I'd only be getting around 360 km to a tank of 62 litres. This is not how much mileage these cars get. When the gauge is near empty, when I go to pump to fill up, the pump stops at around 40 litres every time. It never says 60 or 55 or anywhere close to what the tank can hold.

A fuel gauge is simply useless for calculating consumption so I encourage you to eliminate it from your thought process before it drives you nuts. Fill the tank, reset the trip meter, run the tank down, fill it again then divide it out. To be more accurate do this over a few fillups.

I really think anything else is a waste of time and energy.