Strong petrol smell in cabin!
 

I have a 1992 325i and I have recently noticed a strong smell of petrol inside the car after it has been standing, overnight etc. There has always been a slight smell whilst driving if I have a window open (i've been told by a BMW specialist that this is common with a stainless exhaust) but it doesn't seem to have a fuel leak because i'm not losing any fuel. I can leave the car standing for a few days and it will have the same level of petrol in it but the inside will stink of it. The smell seems to be coming from the back seat, I've heard that this is where the fuel pump is and that maybe the sealing ring has gone.

There is a faint smell of petrol from the engine bay but this is very rare and only occurs when ive been driving hard

Has anyone else had or heard of this problem and if so is it an easy(ish) fix?

Thanks

Appreciated

if you remove the back seat (the part you sit on, not the backrest) you will see where the fuel pump is. Try to open it up and check the seals.

In all likelihood the seals and/or fuel lines have dried out and cracked, and you're getting pooling of petrol around the access panel to the fuel pump. This is why you can smell it, but you can't detect anything on the ground. Pull the rear seat to see what's going on, but it sounds as if you'll need to replace some worn out components. May involve dropping the tanks to get full access, sorry to say.

Will have a look in the morning, hopefully it will be a minor repair job :sweating