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130i Strong smell of petrol in car immediately on start up

7K views 20 replies 6 participants last post by  popcorn 
#1 ·
Hi folks - any ideas on this one?

I started up my 130i at lunchtime from cold - outside temp was about 8 degrees - and immediately after the engine fired up there was a pretty strong smell of petrol in the car.

Its an auto so I have my foot on the brake am not blipping the throttle. All windows / doors were closed. The petrol tank was about half full. I set off and the smell immediately cleared.

That's the 1st time its done that in my 4 weeks of ownership - so far not had any smell of petrol in the car otherwise and its running fine. Its a bit worrying - should I be getting this checked out or is this normal for this car?

Many thanks in advance.
 
#4 ·
Yes all those plastic undertrays don't help with spotting anything leaking really.

Would the car generally smell of petrol when I walked around it if it were dropping fuel? Whereabouts is it likely to be dropping it from>? Any known trouble spots?
 
#6 ·
Do you think that would leak fumes into the cabin?

Will start the car up in the morning from cold again with the hubby around - 2 pairs of eyes to see if we can spot anything.

After the smell in the car today I did a journey of around 30 miles, parked up for about 20 mins, started the car (no smell) and did the return journey.

No sign of anything leaking around the fuel tank or back end when the car was on the ramps last week at my favourite indy BMW specialist just NWest of me.
 
#7 ·
Marco has hit the nail on the head, I reckon your fuel breather has gone through.

If you park the car on a hill do you end up with half a tank of fuel missing?
 
#8 ·
Ummm interesting theory. I don't park on a hill, pretty level driveway, in fact not parked on a hill yet so can't say if fuel is disappearing.

Disappears pretty fast when I drive it tho'! :lol2:

Seriously though will check out that drivers side rear wheel arch in the morning. Thinking its a wheel off job in order to be able to get a good look up the wheel arch?
 
#10 ·
Ah that's good that sounds easy will give it a try in the morning .... many thanks :spotman:
 
#11 ·
So all is good with the 130i this morning and she's not smelly at all today. Had a good look under the back end - nothing untoward around the petrol tank area. There doesn't seem to be a fuel breather pipe that I can find inside the rear driver side wheel arch - had a good look with torch and felt all over in there - its well lined out and just came across a couple of fixings holding the liners in place.

Same scenario as yesterday - started the car up reading about 7 degrees outside but today no petrol smell at all. Checked under the bonnet - nothing to see or smell under there.

Oh well definitely a 'she' - does it one day but not the next - so unpredictable :lol2:

So after all that I took her out for a spin and called in at a local watering hole for a belly full of unleaded - this time super prices have dropped and I thought well why not.

So happy motoring :spotman:
 
#12 ·
Dropped my 130i off at indy BMW specialist Bavarian Motor Warehouse in Huddersfield today - car booked in with them tomorrow to investigate the petrol smell which is occurring on a cold start up but not at any other time.

Their money was on an 'over fuelling injector' - too much fuel on start up doesn't go down into the injector as it should but is fired upwards instead. In non-technical terms that's about as much as I understood. Will know more tomorrow but just wondered if this is a known issue on these engines even at 36k miles.

Many thanks. :thumbs:
 
#13 ·
Injectors aren't common failure items on the 130i but it's not unheard of. Report back with the results!
 
#14 ·
Am no further on with pinning down this whiff of petrol or fumes on a cold start only not at any other time.

Just got the car back - its been at Bavarian Motor Warehouse on Leeds Road, Huddersfield since Monday whilst they did some investigations.

Diagnostics show the injectors + all fuel injection system are all working fine. They did thorough visual inspection of all possible leakage areas under the bonnet which has revealed no leaks.

We talked about the breather pipe (filler neck issue) and also cracked exhaust manifold. They didn't think either of those were possibilities. Oh well I've got a low profile trolley jack + axle stands now so as soon as I get a decent breaker bar to shift the wheel nuts I'll be having an explore myself under there.

Good news is the car also had its engine coolant + diff oil changed. That bit all went well. :thumbs:
 
#15 ·
Hi, I have a 2005 130i.

I get the petrol smell some times, mostly 'cold start ups. I generally only get it at home and have figured that at home I reverse park every time right up to a wall, the car park is small and has no breeze. The reverse parking into a confined space seems to be the variable that gives the petrol smell consistently.

I'm fairly sure that my use of the throttle when I'm reversing uses a bit too much rpm so as I'm doing my manoeuvres reversing over my fumes I'm sucking in the fumes then switching everything off. Then when I start it up I get a blast of whatever I sucked in the day before.

If I switch the cabin air on recirculating before I park i don't seem to get it, its about the only time I ever use that buton on the steering wheel !
 
#17 ·
Good point about petrol fumes into the car when backed up to a wall.

Where I park the 130i though I just pull straight off the road onto our driveway - no reversing - and its all very open on the side of a steep hill. I do reverse out off the driveway onto the road but the petrol fumes are present a few seconds after I've pressed the start button and the engine has fired up. At that point I'm sat there sniffing it all in before I've had a chance to put it into reverse and back out.

Its been stood a few days and its pretty cold and will be off out t'moro so it will be a good test. Cheers. :thumbs:
 
#18 ·
So now I may be able to shed some light on my smelly 130i .........

I've just managed to get hold of a copy of a service invoice which I didn't get when I purchased my 130i. Had the stamps in the service book as the car has full BMWSH but there's nothing like having the details on the service invoice to see everything that was actually done.

The previous owner who I contacted a couple of weeks ago has very kindly got a copy from the BMW main dealer she used to use with the car down in Surrey. The invoice is from October 2011 when the car had 26k on - its now on 37k.

The service invoice was for a total of £1600 with a large proportion of this being spent on an intake manifold various breather pipes and a repair to a damaged wiring loom under manifold. It says ..... 'Carried out fault memory test faults stored for EML light air mass system / mixture control followed test modules checked for air leaks found leak coming from under manifold need to remove inlet manifold to investigate'.

Then 'Replaced 3 x breather pipes and engine breather repaired damaged wiring loom under manifold after removing manifold'.

So I guess now this could explain that initial petrol smell right on start up then? Have they maybe got some gasket not quite properly aligned or something? This petrol smell is only immediately on a cold start never and then it goes - never smelt it at any other time.

Cheers in advance :thumbs:
 
#19 ·
Can't help you, but what on earth did they have to repair under the bonnet and what was the cause of that?
 
#20 ·
Not sure Dom the way it reads it says they 'repaired damaged wiring loom under manifold after removing manifold'

Can't tell if they damaged the wiring loom removing the manifold or if the loom was damaged beforehand.

Can't help thinking the petrol smell is something to do with one of the several intake manifold breather pipes which were replaced.

Needs a bit more looking into with the underside panels off the next time its up on the ramps.
 
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