REALLY NEED HELP!!! My car wont let me pump gas!!...

[TSM3]

I was running on empty yesterday and pulled up to a gas station to fill up. After unly pumping about 1 gallon, the automatic shutoff on the nozzlew stoped pumping, so I tried and tried and soon gas was gushing out of my tank!

I thought that the nozzle might have been messed up or the tank had some wierd glitch so I got in and left, figuring I would fil up elsewhere. When I got in the car the gas guage reads FULL!!!! What the hell?! I thought it was some wierd BMW thing and I'd deal with it in the morning.

This morning my guage read EMPTY, so I went to a gas station and again, all i could pump was about one gallon until it was overflowing all over my shoes. Now i am at work, with no gas and no way to fill up my tank! What is going on!!!!!!!??????

HELP!!!

Thanks in advance

Todd

[C.Yang]

That is an interesting problem. I know that sometimes you can get airbubbles in your gas tank, and this will cause the nozzle to automatically stop, because it thinks it has reached maximum fillage, but this doesn't mean that it has. I also have seen gauges go haywire after fillups. My brothers 328 would leave the meter on empty after fillups for a little while, until the car turns off and sits for a while. I have not heard about your situation. Does anyone else drive your car, because maybe they filled up, and your guage is what is messed up. Another possiblity is you have the gas bubble from hell that holds up against the weight of the gas. THe latter is highly unlikely. Another possible problem could be an obstruction in the tank which is preventing the filling. In all cases, I suggest you take your car to a repair shop to get it figured out.

[Ben H]

Sounds like you have a messed up fuel guage. It seems to be a common problem among E36 M3s. My car had the problem too, and multiple people have posted the same problem before. For my car, the guage would all of a sudden read completely empty, even after a fill up. The reason you can't fill up your tank anymore is becuase your gas tank is full, but the guage is broken (this is what I think anyway). The problem with my guage went on for a week or so, going on and off, then searching the archives at bimmer.org, I found people replying with a fix for the problem. It usually has to do with a faulty fuel sender, the thing that reads how much gas is in the tank. so you can get that checked out, or try what i did. There is a fuse (forgot which one, maybe #12???) but you pull that, try to start the car (it won't start) turn off the car, then put the fuse back in. Since I did that my guage has been working properly. Check the bimmer.org archives for which fuse to pull.

Hope that helps.

[oldM3r]

Call roadside assist and have them flatbed you to the dealer, it is possible someone jammed something into your tank

[AlphaKennyOne ///M3]

I remember this happened to someone on the other board. What he did to fix the problem was he opened up the gas tank and took off the cap. Started the car and reved the engine so the air can escape. After that his car was fine. Try doing that before you get ripped off at BMW.

Alan