Fuel pump - noise, fuel smell and a faulty gauge

[beanie]

Just recently the car has started making a gurgling/bubbling noise as the fuel pump primes. So far this hasn’t resulted in any further problems but I’m concerned it might be an early warning of a failing pump. Ive had a pump nearly die on me in the middle of nowhere and it’s not a great deal of fun!

I couldn’t find anything Z3 specific but found a thread about this noise for another BMW (8 series I think) where many said it was a typical symptom during warm starts. Ours never used to do it so it’s clearly not by design, but given that it’s otherwise perfectly fine and the pump isn’t straining or struggling perhaps it’s just one of those things that could carry on for years without issue.

Has anyone had anything similar and should I just live with it or sort it asap?

EDIT- See post 3 for an update.

 

[beanie]

Just to add to this, it has suddenly stopped doing it so god knows what the reason for it was. I expect it’ll do it again at some point but for now nothing has stopped working!

The only other time I’ve heard any kind of fuel flowing/gurgling noise from a pump priming was on an old golf but that was after replacing the entire pump assembly and tank so pretty understandable.

 

[beanie]

Although the noise has stopped, I have noticed a bit of a fuel smell recently. Not all the time but intermittently and now the fuel gauge seems to be stuck on full.

Is there likely to be any connection between these or is it just random coincidence? If it’s a sign of impending spontaneous combustion then I might just leave the thing to burn.