Have to say that fire looks like it is coming from the engine compartment rather than the fuel tank/back seat area.

Buy it from a BMW dealer. If the ebay deal is a BMW dealership, fine. (My guess is BMW of Atlantic City?) 2 year warranty, at any BMW dealership

Crap, I just pulled my rear seat and sure enough, one of the pins is discolored and extending way past the other one. Distinct gas smell, too. Interesting, the cover plate nuts were loose, I just spun them off with my fingers.

Not driving it tomorrow for sure - its next stop is the used car dealer where I bought the warranty.

Sorry, I did not notice the 3.0, I also quoted the wrong part. You are right it's in the $250.00 area.

I just have a hunch that a number of owners would find signs of this if they were to look. Maybe the problem would not be quite as advanced as ours, but there may be signs of a building problem.

Yes, I am ordering from dealer in Atlantic City. Really need to find a pigtail connector now, though. There's a local foreign parts dealer here in town I may call tomorrow.

Bad idea, the pump is submerge in the gas tank so gasoline act as a solvent to the dielectric grease.

Actually, the pin connection is on top of the plastic fuel pump housing, outside of the fuel tank. It is normally sealed off from gasoline, until you have a problem like this which results in a hole in the fuel chamber. Dielectric, I'm hoping, will reduce the chance of that hole reoccurring, thereby keeping the fuel and its vapors away from the connection.

Agree. Those pins are in air.


Contacts in a fuel tank are always a bad idea. TWA800.

Yes, that flight entered my mind as soon as I saw the charred connection.

Went to a local dealership to order a new electrical connector. There are actually several subpieces to the connector. Ordering was a little complicated, which is why I didn't buy the connector online. $40-something plus tax, and I have to assemble the two pins and other parts to it, and hopefully be able to remove & salvage a little rubber boot from the old one and place on the new.

Guys around the shop seemed familiar with this problem, although they didn't seem to think it happened often enough to trigger a recall. Seemed to think its occurrence is actually forecasting a fuel pump failure (starting to draw too much current). No doubt that if the problem were to continue on unchecked there would be a failure of some sort, IMHO.

Oh, I'll also mention I plan on replacing the fuel filter. I'm thinking anything to reduce back pressure on the pump and allow it to draw less current might be a good thing.