IM STARTING TO HATE CARS help? (kinda long)
 

Are you ready for this? It's going to be half rant half FML and half "what do you think?" making them thirds actually ANYWAYS

I was at Rowan last week (im from central) and i go to leave in the morning and my car doesnt start (1991 BMW 325i) so I had Allstate emergency roadside tow it to firestone where the did diagnostics or w/e and told me it was the feul pump

Long story alittle shorter they tried to rape me hard core so i towed it to the shop around the courner (you rowan students my know) Ale's auto care they didnt rape me too bad and put in a new fuel pump ok everything is fine so far

Im driving it away and it smells kinda fumy in the car but i didnt pay it any mind cause hell they just did the feul pump.. the smell is prob just lingering right?

NO, it lingered for a couple moreee days so i call them and tell them im going to bring it back because something isnt right.. they tell me to bring it back

OKay now im on my way to work with it (and plan to go to rowan tonight and bring it by there garage tomorrow morning) and i stop for gas just to make sure i have enough to get there and still have some by the time i get there

SoOOoo i go to get it filled up and after he fills it and tops it off i start it back up and as soon as it starts POPP!! i and it shuts off (sound came from the fuel pump area) :shock:

So i see if she will start back up and she does. but wants to cut out... so i give it some gas to see if she will smooth and keep idlee but it just stays BREATHING LIKE ITS OUT OF BREATHE? like it has asthma or something.. and it sounds like sucking... (i know i sound like an idiot but thats what it sounds like)

AND THEN IT STARTS SMOKING A LITTLE FROM UNDERNEATH NEAR THE FUEL FILTER (that they also changed).. not the fuel filter but near it lol

anyways.. im gettin it towed back up there tomorrow (i tow half they tow half) and there gonna check it out

MY QUESTION TO YOU IS..... do you think that its related to the job they did or just bad luck and its something else? ... if any of you made it this far THANK YOU for reading lol and please respond with any info, advice or knowledge...

I think it's part of the risk of driving a car that's 20 years old

this is true.. doesnt help very much.. but true lol

im not even mad.. i didnt think anyone would take the time to read it all

There is no way to tell fault from where I sit. Report back facts when you have some.

Fwiw when I was in that business on a deal like that I'd pay towing if it was our fault or charge the customer if it was not

they didnt seem to have a problem towing it until they found it it was a total of like 70 miles or w/e

then they asked about any towing we had and we have allstate to tow me 30 miles in that direction with out me paying anything so they are gonna take it from there.

what kinda problem does that sound like to you guys? regardless of fault

Well.... it is tough to say.

New car = less mechanical problems
Old car = more potential for mechanical problems

Have you ever had the fuel pump/ filter changed before?

I have always been a person who does regular/ preventative maintenance on all my cars. Do you do this?

Could it be related to the shop..... maybe.

We need more info.

Is the shop a reliable shop? Are they experienced in european cars?

I wish you the best

new car= monthly payments and high insurance (hard for me at age 20) but i wish i had a new car... the SS is running strong lol

but as for the shop i dont really know much about it .. like i mentioned above im from central jersey and the place i went to was just the nearest local shop.. the sign says foreign and domestic

well thanks for the luck.. ill need it im sure..

fyi the fuel pump is under the passenger side rear seat. there is an inspection cover mounted to the body. under that is the top of the tank.

sounds like a line wasn't secured properly, be it at the fuel filter or the sending unit, and it finally let go. there are also tsb's about the fuel lines under the hood "setting/hardening" and seeping past the clamps. if you can, lay on your back and see if the gas is running down the line to the filter or is leaking at the filter itself. post up what they find.

oh and how much labor did you pay? book time is .5 on the pump and .7 on the filter. i hope no more than 2 hours :-? + parts/diagnosis

yeah i know i pulled the back seat out today to see if it was something i could do myself.. i took the cover off and it loooked normal.. just smelled like STRAIGHT gass.. also was making a slight whistling noise so i just put it back and figured they will deal with it..

i also looked at the filter and felt around.. no leakage to my sight or feel..

dude i got raped.. just not as bad as i would have by firestone.. i paid 340 for the pump (yeah i know) an 120 for labor and another 20 for the filter...

but firestone wanted to charge me 700-900 yeah i was like can i have my car bak now? ill tow it else where.. i had to pay to have it towed down the street because allstate said it wasnt an emergency because i was at a shop that could fix it (and they are right)

and firestone did the diagnosis for 90 .. basicallyy i paid like what the damn car is worth only to have it get fudged up again..

ps this may be a dumb qquestion.. but what are TSB'S?

technical service bulletins :)

i bet firestone thought you had to drop the tank, which would be like an fbody fuel pump swap. :lol: terrible

tsb= technical service bulletins, BMW refers to them as SIB (service information bulletins)

sounds related to me.

yeah thats what my dad thought... till i talked to my buddy that works at bmw and he was like "dude just pull the seat out..." and so i did lol...

anyways.. i hope its related just so that i dont have to pay to have it fixed.. i just feel like no matter what hes gonna feed me some BS telling me its a problem that has nothing to do with the fuel system... i may have to go buck wild on someone tomorrow.. lol jk

i don't know what bs he could feed you, but please let us know. i think things should work out for you, its probably something stupid.

ill keep you guys pposted. thanks for the quick feed back and some good info.

How did you get raped? If book time is 1.2 hours + diagnostic time, $120 in labor seems good.

if it's breathing out of breathe that's a very bad sign.

Makes you wonder if some form of EVAP type hose popped off or was dried out and cracked. Or if the cat(s) finally got clogged too much and it's a ton of backpressure.

I was thinking the same exact thing.

there was no diagnostics time... i told them to change the fuel pump cause firestone did diagnostics.. and he specifically said if i want him to diagnose it he would charge me more.. and i was like NA... NANANA. it was the fuel pump costing 340 .. which isnt crazyy crazy but its like the most expensive one ive seen online... dont matter now anyways its paid for


anyways...the breathing ****.. you guys are gonna laugh at me ..

an effin vacume hose popped loose.... but in my defense it was kinda small and i dont know **** about e30 inline six.. (but to be honest i should have saw that:banghead:)

as for the fuel smell... when they picked the car up to tow it the first time.. all this gas poored out from under the car but i couldnt see the source...

i took it back there and he said it must have been gass left from doing the job which is w/e

i dunno what to think because the office guy told me there was a bad seal and the mechanic told me it was nothing.. he said he reassembled it cleaned it with break fluid and tighened all the seals (which is what i figured they would do) so all in all.. im all fixed up :)

untill something else breaks haha

So no reason to panic. Good to hear it is fixed. Either way he cetainly did not rape you on labor. At all. And it appears he stood behind his work. And you will always buy parts cheaper online or whatever than from a garage. They make a few bucks on parts. It's part profit, part covering those times where you get a bad part and have to re-do the work. You gotta pay to piper if you can't do the work yourself. And by the sounds of it you're not too auto-tech savvy, which is ok. At least now you found a guy to trust to some degree, which is 80% of the battle IMO.

I honestly cannot believe he changed a fuel pump on request with no diagnostic time. That so puts the garage in a no win situation. FWIW, I'd have told you to pound salt. Did he tell you if that didn't fix the issue you were SOL?

yeah i mean hes ok.. but like i said in the original post .. this places is in glassboro and im from oldbridge thats like a good 80 miles lol i only had work done there cause i had no choice... i have a guy in new brunswick that is my regular mechanic ..

and what happened was i told him that since firestone did a diagnoses and said it was the fuel pump there was no need for him to do it (which was a risk ofcouse) and yeah he told me that if that wasnt the problem.. then it wasnt his problem..

he kept it pretty honest id say.. i was expecting the worst and made out in the end... overall anways

today was a whole nother adventure .. i dont even feel like getting into... about just getting the car back down there with the tow trucks..

but thanks again guys

:lol: well at least its fixed