Smoke, smell of gasoline, idle, noise

Hi,

my A8 4D 2.8 30V, Bj. 11/1997 has some strange symptoms that may have the same cause:

- it takes a relatively long time to jump in
- Gasoline smell after jumping in
- at idle and very rarely when accelerating from low speeds, the motor has slight dropouts (runs round)
- increased smoke development from the exhaust

When I recently switched off the car with a running engine, I noticed noises from the tank filler (cracks, pins). The engine's dropouts seemed to coincide with the sounds. The next day the sounds were gone.

Do you have any idea what the causes of the symptoms can be? Otherwise the car drives quite normally and also reaches the final speed.

With the noises I tap on the petrol pump (seeming to be quite vulnerable as you read it).

Greeting and thanks for the tips in advance,
Olaf