1988 E30 320i Troubles

[740iryan 0]

Hi all, as above i am having trouble with my E30 320i its a 1988 and auto if that helps also.

Ok so it goes like this: the idle is all over the place sometimes sky high on start up sometimes it hunts up and down. When it sits for a while like at lights or in traffic it will stall and cut out, it will still stall if you try to accelerate a bit to get the revs back up this does nothing and it cuts out.

Sometimes it starts again no problem sometimes it will not. When it doesn't it will crank but just wont start. Will try and start 4-5 times then go completely dead like a flat battery. If i wait 5-10 mins and try again it will start again usually first or second try. Seems to be happen more often when low on petrol and at low speeds unsure if this is related or not though.

This trouble has all started after i had the inlet manifold gasket replaced by a mechanic, before had it ran perfectly fine but was down on power and a bit thirsty. It started doing it straight away the day i got it back from the mechanic, but was much much more a stalling all the time. So i took it back and they replaced the airflow meter, which seemed to make it right for about a week or two then started doing it again. So i took it back again and this time they said the throttle position sensor was faulty, so at this stage i was doubting them a bit and decided ill have a look at it myself.

So about a month ago one weekend i took the throttle body off and replaced the TPS i noticed while i was there was three wires leading to the TPS plug, one of them had been cut, look like a pretty clean cut to me to which again made me wonder why the mechanic didn't pick up on that. So i repaired that while i was there. I also noticed the throttle body had no gasket i though it should have had one but maybe not according to some?? anyone know?

So i put it all back together and it ran much better for about 2-3 weeks and now im back to the stalling at low speeds or in traffic thing again and not starting again for 5 mins or so. It seems to be becoming more frequent also and harder to start.

So today it spent the day at an auto sparkie and they scanned it and came up with no faults!

So my question is whats going on, whose got some good advice or suggestions cause im just about out and the mechanic cant seem to fix it so ive lost faith in them.

Sorry for the novel but i had to include as much as i could. Any questions please ask im really keen to fix this problem ASAP and need a bit of help.

Thanks

Oh and if anyone in Dunedin has a E38 airbag reset tool i wouldn't say no to there help to for my other car I just replaced the occupancy sensor and need a reset.

[nath 129]

A good start would be taking the whole intake assembly from the throttle body back apart, purchase the appropriate crc/ carb cleaners/ contact cleaners and deal to each component and also test them for correct resistances and voltages etc.

Further than that would be willy nilly replacement of parts such as ECU.

This is assuming that there isnt a gaping whole in the replaced gasket.

[hotwire 352]

Well if the problem only started after the manifold gasket was replaced, & that is all that was done - retrace those steps

[740iryan 0]

Well if the problem only started after the manifold gasket was replaced, & that is all that was done - retrace those steps

Have done so and nothing appears obviously wrong, i am hoping to avoid randomly replacving parts and hoping someone has an idea.

[Mark 178]

Could be all sorts of things...

Thermostat, vacuum leak, a fuelling issue, ECU, etc etc or even a combination of one or more things that is causing the problem.

[740iryan 0]

Could be all sorts of things...

Thermostat, vacuum leak, a fuelling issue, ECU, etc etc or even a combination of one or more things that is causing the problem.

Yip and thats the problem, its so random it could be any of those so where to start is hard to pick.