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BMW 3-Series Fuel Pump Failures

51 messages,  Last post on Feb 16, 2013 at 2:31 PM

You are in the BMW 3-Series Forum.

What is this discussion about? BMW 3 Series, Sedan, Wagon

Messages Page 2 of 5

#11 of 51 Re: Personally.. [jongould] by Mr_Shiftright HOST

May 03, 2011 (9:08 am)

Replying to: jongould (May 02, 2011 11:00 am)
Their explanation makes little sense on the face of it, but oh well.....

#12 of 51 Re: Personally.. [Mr_Shiftright] by busiris

May 04, 2011 (9:08 am)

Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (May 03, 2011 9:08 am)
Here's my question on the alcohol idea...
 
Exactly how is one to know what % of alcohol content is in the gas.... Keep a mini-lab in the trunk to test a sample before filling?
 
That position would be a great aid to a competitor in an advertising campaign...
 
"Our competition blames you for fuel-related" failures. We don't!".

#13 of 51 Re: Personally.. [busiris] by Mr_Shiftright HOST

May 04, 2011 (9:53 am)

Replying to: busiris (May 04, 2011 9:08 am)
A gas station can't be pumping 15% ethanol without telling people--it would have destroyed 90% of the cars in the neighborhood. The place would be surrounded by torches and pitchforks.
 
 Unless your car is specifically "multi-fuel" designed, it can't safely run on 15%.
 
Regular neoprene fuel line should be impervious to 10% ethanol.
 
This whole explanation makes my bogusometer go off.
 

#14 of 51 Re: Personally.. [Mr_Shiftright] by jongould

May 04, 2011 (10:11 am)

Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (May 04, 2011 9:53 am)
OK, so what do you think could be happening? My fuel pump failed. BMW told me the reason it failed was that the fuel lines had deteriorated, and had to be replaced, and that the only way to replace them was to replace the entire gas tank. Do you think that my dealer, BMW of the Hudson Valley, was just padding an $750 fuel pump repair with an additional $2500? If so, why? And if the explanation was bogus, why would the company then back up the service department at BMW of the Hudson Valley? I told them I was going to take this to the NYS Attorney General's Office, and I'm doing just that.

#15 of 51 Re: Personally.. [jongould] by Mr_Shiftright HOST

May 04, 2011 (10:23 am)

Replying to: jongould (May 04, 2011 10:11 am)
I really have no idea what they are talking about. As I said, their explanation (at least as it has been relayed from them to you to me) makes no real sense---the deteriorating of fuel lines from normal gasoline makes no sense, the replacement of the fuel tank makes no sense, and how a fuel pump is destroyed by fuel lines going INTO the pump makes no sense. Do they mean the filler neck tube? What fuel lines "going in?" And why aren't the rest of the neoprene fuel lines in the car destroyed as well in that case?
 
Maybe it's all on the up and up and it's just a communication problem, I can't say.

#16 of 51 Re: Personally.. [Mr_Shiftright] by jongould

May 04, 2011 (10:38 am)

Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (May 04, 2011 10:23 am)
The explanation was: the elevated level of alcohol causes the fuel lines to swell; when they swell enough, they crack; when they crack, chips of neoprene or whatever the line is made of fall off and foul the pump. One would think there should be a filter before the pump intake preventing this from happening, no? Perhaps the filter is installed earlier on the fuel line. Does anyone know a BMW mechanic who could comment on this, or are we just the blind leading the blind?

#17 of 51 Re: Personally.. [jongould] by Mr_Shiftright HOST

May 04, 2011 (10:55 am)

Replying to: jongould (May 04, 2011 10:38 am)
I don't think you need a BMW mechanic here. I think you need someone to explain to you how E85 got into your tank, because normal gasoline with 10% ethanol can't do that to fuel lines.
 
And also why the rest of your fuel lines aren't destroyed, just the ones in the gas tank.
 
And why you have to replace the entire gas tank rather than clean out the old one.

#18 of 51 A Clarification by jongould

May 04, 2011 (11:04 am)

Thanks to the gentle prodding I received as a result of this posting and thread, I just called BMW and asked them for a better explanation. Here's what they told me: the fuel pump in the 2007 328xi (and, I strongly suspect, other 3-series cars from that and maybe other model years) is located inside the fuel tank, and the fuel tank is a "sealed unit." What this means is that if a fuel pump fails on that car -- for any reason -- the entire fuel tank has to be replaced, at a cost of $2500 (plus the cost of a new pump). In other words, the fuel pump is in the fuel tank, and the fuel tank cannot be disassembled.
 
That said, BMW still does maintain that the most likely reason that the fuel line deteriorated and/or "ruptured" was ethanol in the gas, so we're back to Square One on that issue.
 
For those of you who are thinking that this has to be about the stupidest way to design a car that you have ever heard, you'll be happy to know that BMW changed the design on later model years of the 3-series, so that now the pump can be accessed and changed with requiring the replacement of the entire fuel tank.
 
What I said about these cars still stands, however: every 2007 3-series BMW is waiting for this to happen, and when it does, its a $3500+ repair.

#19 of 51 Re: A Clarification [jongould] by shipo

May 04, 2011 (11:10 am)

Replying to: jongould (May 04, 2011 11:04 am)
"What I said about these cars still stands, however: every 2007 3-series BMW is waiting for this to happen, and when it does, its a $3500+ repair."
 
Nah, if what you say is true, there'd be 2007 328i models dropping by the thousands, and that just ain't happening. However, if your statement had said:
 
"What I said about these cars still stands, however: every 2007 3-series BMW which has inadvertently had E85 added to the tank is waiting for this to happen, and when it does, its a $3500+ repair."
 
then I'd agree with you.
 

#20 of 51 Re: A Clarification [shipo] by jongould

May 04, 2011 (11:25 am)

Replying to: shipo (May 04, 2011 11:10 am)
Sorry to be such a dope. What's E85? And how would it be added to my gas tank?

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