Smell of gas, oil and exaust

[JMinPDX]

Further to DeQ's comment on the rear parcel shelf, the previous owner of my car had cut huge (10") holes in the rear parcel shelf and the speakers were not sealed to the shelf leaving a gap for air to pass through (and probably reducing bass response from the speakers). I have since completely replaced the shelf.

Speaking of speaker holes. My e3's PO had speaker holes cut into the sheet metal below the front of the rear seats. I've noticed over the years that this is popular area to butcher just to add speakers. I suspect these could be a culprit in my car. I ditched the speakers and went back to stock parcel shelf units sans holes in the shelf. I'm planning to seal holes below the seat and install sound deadening. Currently only covered with carpet.

 

[Bouliac]

"Cut it off at the source" is excellent advice.
This spring the smell of gas was driving me nuts camping with my gf at the Grand Canyon. There were at least two sources : 1) I had purchased a new filler cap from W&N but it fit so tightly that I was not closing it all the way. Making the effort to do so helped. 2) I removed the gas tank cover in order to verify that the fuel line to the sender was good: I replaced it. Then I noticed that if I pushed down on the center of the gas tank, there was air escaping from the seal where around the top of the sender where it contacts the gas tank : I could hear it. I removed the sender and put "the right stuff" gasket sealer on the round rubber gasket that seals the interface between the sender and the tank. I don't think that it is an 0 ring, it had a rectangular profile if I remember correctly, and I'm pretty sure that it was original -- When I pushed down on the tank I could no longer hear air escaping but I noticed that the metal of the tank surrounding the sender sort of glistened when I pushed down. Air/vapor was till escaping. I was in a hurry to get this fixed, camping in the middle of the Navajo res, at Canyon de Chelly, so I went the Hack Mechanic kluge route. I found a hardware store and purchased a round shower rubber drain gasket that was just a bit larger in diameter than the original gasket. I removed the sender, cleaned the gasket and the surfaces, layed a new layer of "The Right Stuff'" around the hole where the sender goes into the tank and round the sender surface, and put it sender back through the two concentric gaskets. That sealed it so that nothing escaped. I've been meaning to get a new gasket and do this the way it should be done on a 35k car going up 5% a year, but the kluge is holding up. Will the concour's judges deduct points ?

John in Montreal

 

[Rek]

This sender rubber caused me issues with fuel smells too. It seems that when the sender is tightened, using a C spanner or the BMW 'two screwdriver' method, the rubber seal is damaged or sits in a distorted fashion.

I tried the approach of greasing the top and bottom of the places where the seal sits. It improves things, but it still has the faint whiff of fuel.

 

[Honolulu]

The picture that Rek has posted shows the plastic sleeve on the sender tube at the 8:00 position. If you replace the flex line in the trunk, sometimes the plastic tube comes off with, and is discarded with, the old flex line.

The o-ring between sender and tank does in fact have a circular cross secti0n - when new. Decades of pressure later it will have deformed to something approximating rectangular. Add this to my list of possible faults above!

 

[Ohmess]

This sender rubber caused me issues with fuel smells too. It seems that when the sender is tightened, using a C spanner or the BMW 'two screwdriver' method, the rubber seal is damaged or sits in a distorted fashion.

I tried the approach of greasing the top and bottom of the places where the seal sits. It improves things, but it still has the faint whiff of fuel. View attachment 50255

I installed a new seal to ensure I was starting with a round ring, and used a tiny bit of petroleum jelly in the process.

 

[eriknetherlands]

The plastic tube at the 8 o-clock position in the pic above (post 23) also develops cracks. I've had 5 NOS sending units last year; 3 of them had severely cracked tubes, 4 of them showed a maze of these little plastic cracks that develop over time when they get brittle; for sure a easy way to get that smell of gas in your car.
Now I do think you can do without them, if you have a fuel line that can be effectively compressed to 6 mm internal diameter. But I think our standard fuel line is made for a 8 mm ID; not sure if that compresses well to 6 ID without leaks.

 

[deQuincey]

The plastic tube at the 8 o-clock position in the pic above (post 23) also develops cracks. I've had 5 NOS sending units last year; 3 of them had severely cracked tubes, 4 of them showed a maze of these little plastic cracks that develop over time when they get brittle; for sure a easy way to get that smell of gas in your car.
Now I do think you can do without them, if you have a fuel line that can be effectively compressed to 6 mm internal diameter. But I think our standard fuel line is made for a 8 mm ID; not sure if that compresses well to 6 ID without leaks.

it will compress without problems