Mechanic says I need a new fuel tank, the cost? £500!!!!! Any ideas?

[E34-520iSE]

Yowch! All I can say on the subject is my car has a plastic tank but if it ever got damaged I'd be ringing the breakers yards. They are fairly simple to remove & replace. Sod £500 for a game of soldiers!

HTH,

Shaun M

[e34.535i.sport]

Hey £200 fitting is ridiculous... If I can take my tank off you can do yours, it's a peice of piss, just takes a while. I 'assume' the 540i will be similar? Get one off ebay if it is fooked and slap it on yourself. Get some new hard lines while your there too.

Good luck mate, hope all works out.

[leicesterboy15]

I just took the car to the garage to get the fuel leak sorted and they told me i need a new tank which will take 5 days to arrive, cost £250 + Tax +£200 fitting + tax + any other perishables + tax totaling between £5-600!! I can't believe its going to cost that much! So I figured if I'm going to spend that much I'd better make sure they are telling the truth and consider my options!

The guy said the padding they use around the tank retains moisture and starts corroding it, there's no hole but in some areas (I think one in particular) the surface is beginning to perforate. I'm not sure this is the case but I need to look myself.

My main questions are how hard is it to replace the tank? Is it just a nuts and bolts job? How many connections are there to the tank (need to ensure I get them all)? Do I need to lower the exhaust? How do I de-pressurise the system?

My plan would be to build the new tank with new bits on the outside, remove the sender unit and pump from the old tank and put into new one. remove all connections to old tank, drop and remove it, replace tank with new straps / bolts and re-connect all connections.

Does that sound about right? Should I replace the expansion tank bits while i'm there? Is there anything else?

Are there any things to look out for (like filler neck etc). Also, are the plastic and metal fuel tanks interchangeable? They look slightly different on realOEM but it lists both for my car. Will I need all new bits (pump, sender etc) if I replace the metal one with a plastic one? is it worth it or best to stick to metal?

The car is a UK 540i touring with a metal tank but I think the tank is the same for both saloon and touring.

I've seen a few posts on this when searching but most are about the fuel lines, I've only seen one instance where the actual tank needs replacing.

[whiskychaser]

If the tank is weeping it's shot. But you can get a plastic one on a well known auction site for £47 + £11 postage. Says E34 5 series so I can only guess they are all the same. You can also get new straps from the same site -I bet the old ones wont budge or snap when you try to take them off. Be cheeky - (BMW service depts will be open in the morning) -ring and ask them if plastic and steel are interchangeable. Without getting the book out I dont know whats involved but it cant be rocket science. If you can save
£500+ its got to be worth getting your hands dirty:D

[Barney Paull-Edwards]

The different tank materials are interchangeable, my plastic tank is coming out this weekend and a metal tank from a local scrap yard(cleaned,primed and coated with epoxy) is going in.Only way I can work out how to clean out micro-bugs from tank!

[bahnstormer]

i used jb weld to patch a leak on mine its held for the last 3 years

[anonymous1]

My main questions are how hard is it to replace the tank? Is it just a nuts and bolts job? How many connections are there to the tank (need to ensure I get them all)? Do I need to lower the exhaust? How do I de-pressurise the system?

My plan would be to build the new tank with new bits on the outside, remove the sender unit and pump from the old tank and put into new one. remove all connections to old tank, drop and remove it, replace tank with new straps / bolts and re-connect all connections.

Does that sound about right? Should I replace the expansion tank bits while i'm there? Is there anything else?

Are there any things to look out for (like filler neck etc). Also, are the plastic and metal fuel tanks interchangeable? They look slightly different on realOEM but it lists both for my car. Will I need all new bits (pump, sender etc) if I replace the metal one with a plastic one? is it worth it or best to stick to metal?

Hi,

That price is ridiculous.

I reckon you'd be able to do the job yourself, I helped E34.Sport drop his and there wasn't much to it. (Was tricky due to some rust and stubborn bolts - but otherwise not the worst job.) On his (535) there wouldn't have been a need to remove the exhaust (although I believe I have to on mine unfortuantely) and once the straps were off and the hoses disconnected then it just pulled away.

Your plan sounds right to me.

From what I remember and guessing yours is the same as the 535, there is one pipe to disconnect on the back of the tank and one on the front. You can then disconnect the other fuel lines from in the boot by removing the access panel. Not sure how easy it is to get the pump out as we didn't need to do this at the time. There was one sneaky screw the attached the filled neck to the side of the car that you'll need to pull the rubber aside to gain access to.

Not sure if you'll be able to use the old parts, but should be able to match the part numbers across from the ones showing for the metal on plastic on real.oem hopefully.

HTH

[BMWDriver]

Mine was rebuilt (probably plastic poured inside and moulded in by tumbling) for a couple of hundred CAN dollars. Much cheaper than I had anticipated.

[mystic_525_tds]

fibre glass does the trick

[525i winter driver]

i paid the piper - cost $1000 after labour and tax.

mine had been repaired once before and after seeing all the crud inside i was glad i had it done although it was a painful bill to pay. it's a different market here tho and buying that kind of thing from a scrapyard here is a bit risky with our weather. i have nowhere to do that myself so i didn't even consider that. fuel leaks are very bad things tho i think.

[leicesterboy15]

Guys there is so much invaluable information there (well actually about £600 worth!!), thanks very much! I would have thought the plastic ones are better than the metal as they don't rust, do you agree is is there something else to be aware of on them?

I'll look around for a second hand tank then i think then and get the rest of the bits from the dealer, I wouldn't expect more than £100 for the sundries (straps, bolts, gaskets etc because as someone mentioned these will all be shot).

I was going to do the job myself originally but I just haven't got the time which is why I took it to the garage, I thought it would be a couple of vent pipes and £150 but for £500 I'll bloody make time! I'd rather spend that on some new suspension or put it towards a manual box! Thanks again for the help, its been very useful!