Fuel pump?

[Hoensteed]

Hello everyone, I am new to this forum and have recently purchased an 82 e21 and have ran into some car issues. Driving home from work yesterday the engine sputtered to a halt on me. I was able to crank it and drive a few more miles before the same thing happened again. When I did it a third time it would drive only a few feet before shutting off on me and at this point I had it towed to my house. A couple days have passed since this occurence and i decided to try and start it and it ran fine. I didn't trust it take it very far but sitting under the garage helped and I was able to take it to the post office and back. In addition, to this the car has been making a ringing noise I think from the fuel pump and has a strong odor of gas. My questions could this be the fuel pump? And if so does anyone know how hard this part is to replace? Thanks

[Jeroen]

What model and year mate?

[Hoensteed]

It is a 1982 BMW 320i with the 1.8L engine. do you have any clues?

[trash-berd]

Sorry to dig this up, but I'm having a similar problem. My car sat for a day without running, and now it has a very rough idle and it sounds like the engine almost dies when I accelerate quickly, even in neutral. I had started the car to get it to the garage so I could check on the fuel pump without being in wet grass, and from the driveway and it died before I could even make it. On closer inspection, my fuel pump relay seems to have been getting way too hot. I don't know if that's because the fuel pump is bad and is messing with it, or if it's just the relay thats failing.

[Corrado]

Wow, no relay should heat up enough to heat up the plastic cover.
Never seen this before.

[Jeroen]

That would be my first suspect as well.