E30 Zone

Hi, was going to replace my petrol tank cause where the filler pipe joins the tank, its soft, fairly fukd, when i put petrol in theres a strong smell, maybe loosing feul pressure too?? anyways, my question is........ how difficult is the tank to replace? if its a total bitch i might get a clued up person to swear at it rather than me. cheers.

fairly easy, give everything a good soaking in wd40 a day before or something. all the gubbins that you will need to unbolt has a habit of being rusty shitty and siezed.

aye, thought thatd be the case. ive found a decent priced tank, but where do you get filler pipe from? is it just a rubber pipe u can get out of a factors or is it a specialised pipe id have to order? cheers for the help bud

Just joined this forum and have recently replaced tank on my daughters 318i. The pipe from the filler to the tank is different diameters at either end. Only available from BMW agent. About Ԛ£12. Hope this helps.

Don't be disillusioned by people telling you it's not that bad to do.

It's a total bitch of a job and one that I would gladly pay someon eelse to do if I ever have to do it again even though I'm more than capable of performing it myself.

One huuuge advantage would be if you can get your car up on a ramp when fitting hte new tank and also a spare pair of hands. I did mine on my own on axle stands and it drove me mad.

If you do plan to do it yourself then get a couple of meters of new fuel hose and a handful of jubilee clips because the old stuff will be perished and is more than likely going to split when you move it. Infact if I remember correctly, some of them are pre shaped so you'll need to order then from the dealer.

It's a fairly easy job as jobs underneath a car go.
Before you unbolt the tank, remove the rear seat base and undo the two black inspection covers. There are things there to be dissconected first. Drain the old tank before you remove it, so it's as light as it can be.
Remember there will be petrol vapour everywhere, and take appropriate precautions.

Are you sure its the petrol tank that is leaking? not just the filler pipe?

The Metal pipe seams to corrod pretty easily and cost well over Ԛ£100 from the dealers. Even if its not got a hole in it yet, its worth painting with some "straight to rust" metal paint, in order to prolong it a bit more.

Top advice guys, cheers!! Quite sure its the tank,i had it over a pit a month ago and the tank lookd shaggd to say the least, just didnt want to take off tank,have a new 1 sitting ready and all the filler pipe etc disintigrates, just going to get job lot and replace (in the near future Ԛ£Ã”šÃ‚£Ãƒ”šÃ‚£Ãƒ”šÃ‚£). What all pipes would i need??? Metal filler pipe? Can that not be replaced by rubber 1?? What diameter is the feul pipes (all?) Ill try the rust paint stuff first,sounds like a good idea. Once again, thanks for the advice, glad i joined (eventually)

Hi Andy, welcome to the zone, told you it was helpful.
Get your wanted ads up I am sure there will be a few people on here with what you need
All the best
Steve