2008 328i gas smell

Hey all, 

I'm in my hometown and looking for some help from the hive. My father has a 2008 328i convertible. 66k miles and in great shape. It however has a gas smell. One other thing to note is that it doesn't like to take fuel, I had it keep clicking off yesterday. Dad says it won't do that if you hold the nozzle sideway? 
my non bmw experience says check valve or charcoal canister. Car runs perfect and gets 25+ mpg. 
any common issues we should check first? 

Try checking under the rear seat to see if the fuel pump module(s) may be leaking or have a hose leaking.  Easy thing to check before digging any deeper.

I had a Miata that reeked of fuel.  It turns out that there was rust between the fill hose and the steel pipe at the top of the tank that was letting gas fumes out. I cleaned and lubed the steel and replaced the hose and that solved the problem. 
 

My E90 had issues when filling and the pump shutting off prematurely. I would check the vent.

Sounds like the vet for the tank is bad. 

Is it a n52 or n51 sulev?  Early e90's with the n52 are common to leak fuel from the filter outlet on the right side of tank. This will cause the smell but not the fueling difficulty.  There are some vent lines that go through the flange on the pump that if loose will fill the charcoal canister as well.

Pull the rear seat. Might need a new fuel pump. The plastic carrier breaks. 

Difficulty adding fuel is usually a plugged canister or a stuck shut vent solenoid (or the BMW equivalent) but I did have a weird one where the hose between the filler neck and the tank separated its inner liner and turned into a crescent moon cross section, blocking the ability to flow.

You always remember the weird ones.

I did not smell fuel but did have similar symptoms during fill-up on my 128i. In my case, the car also showed a money light and threw codes that led me to replace the Leak detection pump (Bosch P/N 16137193479 + grommet - BMW P/N 16131183912).

About 30 minutes if you have to work on the ground. 

Thanks y'all. Will report back!