A couple days ago, driving about 75 miles home from chicago, got 3 miles from home and engine shut off no warning. no stutter, no warning lights, (no DTC even after it stalled).

I have a knock-off fuel pump that is the under-warranty replacement of the one that failed after 10 months, so I was pretty darn sure that had to be it, i actually didn't even look at the test-6 or open up the tank before i ordered a new Bosch unit (the pierburg are too hard to find quick shipping). I also liked the verbiage on the Bosch unit regarding new improvements in the design in the past TWENTY YEARS since mine original was made.

Anyhow, imagine my surprise when yesterday i go to take out the old sending unit (where i'll transplant the new motor), and see a bone dry tank (i mean BONE dry; it would take less than 3 paper towels to remove every bit of remaining fuel; clearly the pump was working at the time).

So; siphon jet? at nearly 1/2 tank registered; well that's not laws-of-physics possible if the senders are reporting properly, so i pull up test 6 and it shows 330000 ; 33L left 0L right; well i can visually confirm right is 0.0000, but the left when you look from the right port hole, you see reflections and you really can't tell..

So, 5-8 minutes later, the left side port open and what do you know it's BONE DRY ALSO; so the sender was reporting the wrong #; by 33L. Well that will throw a big monkey wrench into the system for sure.

So, i hook both senders back up (careful to point the fuel pump down into the tank in case any fuel might spurt out), and get test 6 up and running; and both will do a proper sweep from 0 to 27 and 0 to 55L.

I go to fill up the tank and something odd happened; when the left tank got to about 28L, it stopped climbing while the right side ramped up properly to 27L or so.

Then i started driving and the left side popped up to 55L as it's supposed to read and the right stayed pinned to 27L like it's supposed to.

I get 6.0 reading of 550270 as it supposed to, 6.1 reads 82.0 and 6.2 reads like 62.5L; wtf?

So i knew i had to reset the IKE but didn't know that was what I had to look for.

That worked like a charm, instantly my fuel gauge now went from 2/3 to 1/1.

I still have to figure out what is going on with the left side sender that is 'sticking' at 33L; it's either somehow a dirty sweep (btw has a TIS how to fix by increasing the spring tension) or a physical blockage, like the float is getting caught up on the discharge hose from the siphon jet pump.

I have to drive about 180 miles tomorrow so after that drive i should have the fuel low enough to send in the 'rectal probe' (fiber optic inspection camera) and see if there is a physical obstruction causing the hang-up.

Soooooo. since I already bought the new Bosch pump, and my wife is still using the original pump from my car, i'm going to put that pump in her car and put her pump in my car in the trunk as a spare, with just enough tools to swap on the side of the road if necessary when my china pump actually fails. That will be enough to get me home where i'll order another bosch/pierburg pump.

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2011 E70 • N55 (me)
2012 E70 • N63 (wife)