More problems

[tomsugden]

I took my 350i for its first long run over the weekend, and noticed some more problems.

I filled the car with fuel in London, and drove 70 miles odd to Hungerford. I parked the car on a slight sideways incline, so that the drivers side of the car was maybe 3 or 4 inches lower than the passenger side. Fuel started pouring out of the breather pipe located behind the passenger side rear wheel. The fuel tank was about 2/3 full at this point. Any ideas ?

What is the normal operating temperature of a 350i ? Driving back to London on Sunday the temperature guage was in the bottom of the red. The fan is working, and turning the heating on full helped reduce the temperature. I know it was a very hot day, but is this normal ?

Cheers for your help

[badredwedge]

My 350i runs at 80 deg (even on sunday). In traffic it sneaks up to 92 when the fan kicks in. I dont think it should run in the red, have thought of fitting a fan overide switch ??

[jmorgan]

Problems I have had that made things hot.

Nadgerd Rad, recored.

Leaking sealing cap on the swan neck, you could hear it hissing as it was sucking air after a run.

Air lock in the heater matrix. Installed a valve to bleed off.

A 350 local had a simular problem and flushed the rad and it was OK, full of crud.

Will your fan spin freely by hand?

[adam quantrill]

Unusual but not unheard-of. Presumably parking the car on a funny angle after a run would result in vapour being trapped in the passenger side tank. Heat from the exhaust could create more vapour and pressure, pushing some fuel out.

As for the temp guage, seems a bit high, but maybe its badly calibrated? Quite often there is a series resistor near the sender to set it up with the VDO meter. It that's missing it could read too high. I find 80 degrees is normal except when stuck below 30mph on a hot day.

>> Edited by adam quantrill on Tuesday 12th July 11:54

[racingsnake]

Only had mine a week Tom but it runs at 80-90 most of the time. One thing i liked when i bought the car was a previous owner has fitted twin electric fans from a Ford Mundaneno. One is on the thermostatic switch but the other is on a manual overide switch i can switch on if stuck in traffic. It works well and would be a cheap mod to do. I would check everything else first though like the guys said rad flush etc..No point just trying to mask a problem.

[leorest]

tomsugden said:

I filled the car with fuel in London, and drove 70 miles odd to Hungerford. I parked the car on a slight sideways incline, so that the drivers side of the car was maybe 3 or 4 inches lower than the passenger side. Fuel started pouring out of the breather pipe located behind the passenger side rear wheel. The fuel tank was about 2/3 full at this point. Any ideas ?

Just got back in from a 45 minute trip. Identical conditions to those described above except the car was idling whilst other cars were shuffled, no fuel spillage until I drove the car into the garage. This made a small amount of petrol leak out of the filler cap. Fuel guage said full(on the slope) when before it said 3/4 The level was not visible when looking down the neck, even when parked on the slope. May have been fuel returning or something as you can see return/breather pipes just inside the filler neck. When you find out what caused it let us know. BTW I know my breather is not blocked as I have blown compressed air through and heard it rushing out the other end.
Leo