Fuel flap lock bent and suspect fuel has be syphoned
Discussion
Right,
I had an e30 and one day when walking to my car from my house I noticed the fuel flap looked adjar. When I checked, the little locking solanoid arm had obviously been bent when the flap was forced. I never noticed an fuel missing but thought it odd. The lock continued to work although the flap did sit slightly open when the central locking was locked!
Well fast forward a year later to this week. I've sold the e30 and bought an e36. 7 days of ownership and I noticed a abnormal loud clicking sound from the fuel flap. I checked and sure enough the lock was bent too. This time I tried to bend the bar straight and managed to break it resulting in no fuel flap lock. I assumed last time that it had happened in a car park and not outside my house, but this recent occurance was definatley outside my house! Then yesterday I filled up the car (46 litres). (The gauge was in the orange, and afterward read as full). Then today I noticed it reading just above 3/4 having driven only 20 miles!? So I went to the garage to put more fuel in. It took a further 20 litres!
So 3 questions:
Does an e36 fuel tank take 65 litres??!!
Is this a common thing. Is the fuel flap a know weakness that thieves exploit? It seems like someone has targeted the car seeing as it has happened so soon after buying it.
Can you buy a locking fuel cap to go inside the flap?
Cheers,
Martin
I had an e30 and one day when walking to my car from my house I noticed the fuel flap looked adjar. When I checked, the little locking solanoid arm had obviously been bent when the flap was forced. I never noticed an fuel missing but thought it odd. The lock continued to work although the flap did sit slightly open when the central locking was locked!
Well fast forward a year later to this week. I've sold the e30 and bought an e36. 7 days of ownership and I noticed a abnormal loud clicking sound from the fuel flap. I checked and sure enough the lock was bent too. This time I tried to bend the bar straight and managed to break it resulting in no fuel flap lock. I assumed last time that it had happened in a car park and not outside my house, but this recent occurance was definatley outside my house! Then yesterday I filled up the car (46 litres). (The gauge was in the orange, and afterward read as full). Then today I noticed it reading just above 3/4 having driven only 20 miles!? So I went to the garage to put more fuel in. It took a further 20 litres!
So 3 questions:
Does an e36 fuel tank take 65 litres??!!
Is this a common thing. Is the fuel flap a know weakness that thieves exploit? It seems like someone has targeted the car seeing as it has happened so soon after buying it.
Can you buy a locking fuel cap to go inside the flap?
Cheers,
Martin
The E36 spec suggests a 60ltr tank though I've managed to squeeze a full 60 litres in when the orange light was on, so I guess just it has just over 60 litres capacity. If you were on orange and you put 46 litres in then your tank would be about three quarters full. Quite why the gauge was reading full after putting 46 litres in from orange light status is a mystery to me.
This is becoming a much more common occurance with fuel prices as they are, work colleague of mine noticed he was low on fuel, went to fill up and £20 in was stopped by someone else on the forecourt as as he was filling it up on one side the tank was emptying itself on the forecourt the other side, turns out the tank had been drilled...
Gassing Station | BMW General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff