E30 Zone

Hi folks. I bought a 318is a few weeks ago it ran well with just a tiny sort of very brief reluctance at high speed like it was missing for a second or two. Anyway I got the clutch replaced as it gave up the ghost and now its sitting at 2000rpm idle and revving and popping and generally running really shitty. The garage is useless and cant tell me whats wrong with it but assure me its nothing they have done. Im in a proper dilemma.

i cant see the garage doing anything to make it go like that when doing a clutch but you never know.

check for any air leaks by spraying carb cleaner around the inlet side and see if theres a change in revs and engine pitch.

check the rubber boot between the afm and throttle body aswell as they split sometimes after the afm and can cause problems.

Also check the engine earth strap. The garage may have accidentally left it undone when they took the engine out.

do you need to take the engine out to do a clutch on a 318is?

Where would I find this earth strap? No idea if the engine came out but labour was only £150 for fitting the clutch so I doubt it. Its now just reving between 1000-2000 while idleing while driving its jerking all over the shot, can't see any air leaks and the garage checked for these and no split in the boot between the afm and throttle body. Bloody nightmare, is it worth taking it into BMW or will I be horribly robbed?

Something may have been dislodged / damaged / pulled / unplugged when they dropped the gearbox...

Do they have an earth strap on the gearbox too?

no no earth strap on the gearbox, poss something has been knocked or a pipe hanging off somewhere on top of the engine, just have a look around the afm area,

It may be worth disconnecting the battery and resetting the ECU, letting it idle for 10 mins to relearn the base idle settings then switching off prior to taking it for a run.

Thanks alot for all the advice. I do see a cable thats unplugged but cannot for the life of me see where it goes to and the mechanic assured me it was like that when it came in?

Got a decent mobile mechanic out and he ran a diagnostic test. Reckons its the ICV I got one today from the scrapyard but its off a standard 318 not an IS the bosch number is the same so heres hopeing/. RPretty much all the hoses that connect the icv to hte afm and engine were split at the joins so I suppose this could also be the problem. Where can i get decent engine hoses from as the ones on the non IS e30's were different and pretty knackered too.

Mechanic now putting the ICV and pipes back together. My fingers are crossed!

what happened???

Bugger, well all seemed ok he replaced the hoses and the ICV and it worked for about 15 miles now although the idle is ok and its not over revving its jerking and lurching about all over the shot like the engines stopping and starting no idea what to do next.

So the mechanic is coming round tonight to fit a new injector as he now thinks its one of these. He did suggest redex first but TBH the car is pretty un driveable so cant get the fuel through the system enough anyway. Anyone else got any advice on this as I get the feeling were going down a replace all the bits route.

I'm new to this forum, and I'm only here to look for help with a rumbling from the back of my 318i, BUT, I have spent a while reading about engine problems and air-flow-meters this afternoon.

My car just died one afternoon, engine cut out and wouldn't restart. It took a very long time to work out the problem, but here's the summary - the airflow meter was acting intermittently. If it fails completely, or the ECU thinks it has, it will revert to its "get you home" mode and run without it. But if the ECU senses the AFM is there one moment, then not the next, it can't respond properly, and the engine dies or runs badly. The fix was similar to what other writers have said, but I would stress one point. It isn't enough to just spray contact cleaner into the opened AFM, you may also need to slightly increase the pressure between the wipers and the track. BUT you can't do that by just pressing down on the wipers, because when you release the pressure they will tend to spring back up and you actually make things worse. You need to remove the whole wiper assembly from the shaft, slightly increase the bend on the wipers, then replace. As others have said, this is best done only by those used to working on fine instruments, but it is worth it - my car hasn't missed a beat since doing this, and I know for sure that it was the root cause of the problem, because I'd already tried almost everything else that I've seen suggested. Maybe there's an inherent problem with these AFMs ? Maybe poor wiper contact is the root cause of hunting/kangarooing ? Hope this helps.

check your fuel pump and fuel filter.. if these arent in good condition you have no chance.. might just want some super unleaded run through to clear it..

I have driven an is with shit fuel and it spat it's dummy out too

Im no further forward.

My is has been at another garage now for the last week. The guy is ripping the piss. He initiallr rearranged some breather hoses and gave me a bill for £200 the car ran fine till it got hot then the kangarooing started again brought it right back to him and if you ask me he has done fuck all since (5 days). I finally had words with him yesterday and this morning he now thinks its either my o2 sensor or my crank shaft sensor.

This is now getting mental and i have had enough. Im in that age old situation of wanting to now just get rid of it, but cant cause its not workin.

Why not follow JohnnyBlazE's cunning plan and get Spadge to fit a proper engine
http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... highlight=

do like bob said and get the fuel pump and filter checked out

if i hadnt alread thrown £400 at it id be half way to milton keynes by now! Even though im from Edinburgh. This garage restores older cars. The guy is Edward Labinjoh he was an ex le mans driver. How in the name of god cant he see what the problem is? Like I said its been with him a week, although I dont think he has spent more than two hours total on it. Whats my legal rights if I reckon he is over charging me for doing basically nothing?

Bullys_special wrote:if i hadnt alread thrown £400 at it id be half way to milton keynes by now! Even though im from Edinburgh. This garage restores older cars. The guy is Edward Labinjoh he was an ex le mans driver. How in the name of god cant he see what the problem is? Like I said its been with him a week, although I dont think he has spent more than two hours total on it. Whats my legal rights if I reckon he is over charging me for doing basically nothing?

its tough titties fella as it wouldnt be worth your time effort and £££ to chase him up over it.

im over in hamilton if you want you can bring the car over and i will go over it for you and try to sort it?

wullie

Thanks wullie,

The car is still with him, he is waiting to hear from the sports car breakers if they have a crankshaft sensor and an 02 sensor. God knows if these are the problem but he thinks they are! I reckon he is gonna hand me a bill for £300 and I just dont think he has justified it. Its not my problem if it took him 6 hours to work out where the fault was is it?

Suppose ill just need to bite the bullet, the problem is the car runs fine untill I have been driving for like 30 mins so I could pay him then realise an hour later that its not fixed.

Wullie I wish I could get the car over to you but it is running too badly to drive mate. Really appreciate the offer though mate.

no probs dude but if he dosent fix it give me a pm and we can work something out to get it sorted.

Thanks a million mate. I do love the car to bits. Its my 3rd E30 now. Had to go for a 318 cause ill be doing loads of miles as im moving to Boness soon. If he does fix it id still like to get the car looked over and tuned etc so would really appreciate it if you can help with this. Not expecting free time either mate.

Thanks again

Bully

no worries mate just let me know how you get on with it

Hi

There is a garage behind my work of broughton road that have all the bmw diagnostics.

Bellingham Motors‎Address:
4 Broughton Pl Lane
Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH1 3RS, United Kingdom

0131 556 4758

I used Edward for my maserati and he knows italian cars but I now use his ex mechanic John at edinburgh retro cars for my e21 & e28 0131 6612407

Jason

Hi Jason, thanks a million. Edward seems ok but he is very expensive and the first time he gave me the car back he had spent only 45 mins on it and not changed any parts and he billed me £200 god only knows what the final bill will be.

He now wants to change the crankshaft sensor I can get this part for £30 but he also wants to change the cam shaft sensor. This I cant get anywhere except from BMW and they say 5 days shipping. I move house in a week and if I have no car I cant move!

Got the cam and crank shaft sensors kindly sent next dy deliery from Spadge. However they have made no diifference to the problem and now my mechanic is admitting defeat. This is a living nightmare.

£200 for 45 minutes with no parts? it doesnt matter how good he thinks he is no mechanics worth that if they cant fix it.

Thats what I thought fuzzy, he was clearly trying to rip me off and now a week later he tells me he cant fix it. Never had my time wasted like this before. I dont know what to do, no idea how to get it fixed now and im sure he is still going to try and bill me for his time.

Bullys_special wrote:Thanks alot for all the advice. I do see a cable thats unplugged but cannot for the life of me see where it goes to and the mechanic assured me it was like that when it came in?

Perhaps if you post a pic of it here someone may be able to advise you on it...

Also if it's a temperature-related problem, test and/or renew the appropriate sensors.

get it back and tell him your taking it somewhere were they know what theyre doing. were exactly are you again? theres a good place in bathgate and another beside ECP at maybury.

Im in Edinburgh fuzzy mate, im going to get it back off him tonight. Whats this place a Maybury called?