M20 Engine FlatSpots

[BeemaBoy]

Hi

I have identified a serous problem that appears to be happening to my car (87 E30) on an ongoing basis. I seem to regularely be getting flat spots at the 4000RPM range that causes the car to buck a little. I believe I have traced the problem to the Air Flow Meter and the electronic track inside it. It appears that over time the track that the sensor moves along, that attaches to the flap has eroded away the circuit board that measures its position. I have tested it as my service manual indicated and I am horrified to find all the positions that the ohm meter suddenly drops to zero and then back up. Does anyone know if BMW sell this circuit board as a seperate item? Or does anyone know of an 3rd party dealer from whom I can order this curcuit board. I did enquire at the price of an Air Flow Meter a few months ago and was horrified to hear that the price is pushing 378 pounds which is unbelievable for such a simple piece of hardware!!!

Also, I was talking to a friend from RGMotorsport yesterday about the problem and he also says I should be getting problems on a cold start aswell because, as the car has no cold start valve, the AFM controls the cold start procedure via the AFM temperature sensor. Is this true???

Thanks

BeemaBoy

[325iconv]

flatspots at 4000rpm is normal but you could install a new chip into the ecu which gets rid of the flatspots

[Sooty]

There's one up for grabs along with a BBTB in the 'For Sale' section (ahem).

[Brianmoooore]

By a bit of VERY carefull bending, you can get the wiper arms in the AFM to run on an unused part of the track.

[Widge]

Failing that someone will have a cheap Afm in the for sale aection for you mate, no need to pay $375

[BeemaBoy]

Cool Thanks for the help.

I will first try and move the wiper arm to a new bit of the track and see if that works

Failing this, I will keep an eye on the classifieds and hope someone is stripping their baby for spares.

Just to ask 'Widge', you sound shocked by the price I quoted. Is this a normal BMW price or am I getting ripped off?

Thanks
BeemaBoy

[novakiller]

u can get em in euros under Ԛ£200 with vat i think (know its no whare neer bm!) thats exchange i think. worth chekin out though other wise i have one make me an offer lol!

[A1BMW325iSport]

i have 3 airflow meters all working drop me a PM

[Widge]

Na the price is probably right for BMW, just don't see the point spending that on what is an old car after all when there are plenty of perfectly good AFM's out there to be had for Ԛ£25.