The morning is bright and sunny, and I’m up early to haul the M3 from its pit.

I remember now, I’d left it in a bit of a state…

I start in the boot. The arrows in the two photos below show one of the two offending pipes. The end in the wheel arch is rotten.

This is easily replaced with a length of the Pirteck 5/8″ pipe.

The bigger issue was that the breather pipe from the main tank had also perished, both in the wheel arch, and under the back seat:

At this point Ben Smith arrives to show off his new car, but he is soon helping me with my fuel pipes! I take all of the pipe covers off, and with a lot of tugging between the two of us we get the old pipe out.

Now we find we have a problem, as the new pipe from Pirtek is a fraction too big to fit in the tube that connects the wheel arch to under the back seat. Pirtek in Guildford are unfortunately closed on Saturdays, so we decide to improvise using some 10mm fuel hose I bought on Thursday, using the 5/8″ Pirtek pipe as a joiner at each end.

Eventually the job is complete.

We go for a drive in Ben’s new M3, pictured here with my 330d.

It’s a reminder of how good the E36 M3 is at being an all rounder. Sure it’s not as focused, but for six grand I think it’s an excellent ‘one car’ solution. Understeers a lot more easily that the E30 though, which is of course a bad thing.

Later I go for a test drive in the E30 which I’m pleased to say reveals no clutch or fuel issues. The total bill for the clutch was £24.56 (plus a bit of brake fluid), and the total bill for the fuel problem was less than £20 (plus a bit of petrol splashed around!) – so this episode hasn’t been the disaster I thought it might be last Sunday evening.

I finish off the day by giving the M3 a wash, and take a photo with the 330d. What a fleet!