E30 Zone

Has anyone had/cured a problem like this? Driving the car makes me feel a bit sleepy and unsteady on my feet when I get out! Exhaust manifold gasket has been replaced but maybe the manifold's cracked now?

Problem is worst in heavy traffic or when flat out. After flooring it through the gears it even makes my eyes sting! The car often smells of hot oil and I know there's an oil leak but it doesn't lose much oil at all and i don't think this would cause the problem anyway?

Could it be the breather hoses?

I'm at a loss here and any advice would be highly appreciated!

stating the obvious mate but best to get this checked professionally if you can't determine the cause of a leak. Boot seals failed at all, not experienced it with E30 ownership but years ago I had a mini which was a bit of a smoker, the boot seals were non existent, give it a bootfull and the thing fogged up inside bit time, even in december I was driving around with the window down because I was too stupid and lazy to buy a rubber seal, the car was a death trap in all honesty.

The leak is most likely in the under-bonnet region as the inlet for your air system is the vents under the wipers on the front scuttle panel, so it draws the fumes from under the bonnet into the cabin, any other holes underneath the car, around the gearstick/centre console?

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm having difficulty finding decent professional help around here! Had the manifold gasket changed a while ago but wasn't that impressed with their service so I took it somewhere else when I had a problem with petrol fumes and asked them to check the exhaust for leaks as well. They said it was fine.

literally two days later I found fuel p*ssing out of the pipe that connects to the pressure regulator and all exhaust manifold nuts had come undone, one of which had fallen off the end of the stud, and the manifold was blowing!

Took my astra to a different garage again yesterday to have a wheel bearing changed and they changed the wrong one! There aren't many garages left in Bath that I haven't tried!

Can't find any holes under the car unless you count the split gearstick gaiter! It's driving me insane 'cause I know there's something wrong but I'm damned if I can work out what it is!

Someone told me it could be split breather hoses can anyone confirm if this would cause such a problem?

I have similar symptoms since swapping my 325 M20 for another 325 M20, not quite as bad as yours sounds but I do feel a bit light headed every so often.

My car also seems to be guzzling fuel more than it ever used to. I also changed the exhaust for a non-cat system, and 'disabled' the lambda sensor with a plug of some sort. Thought for a while that it might just be spilled oil, exhaust stickers, or similar just burning off......been going on too long for that now I think.

I'll be watching this thread with interest.

It's not that serious really - it's more annoying 'cause I know there's a problem and I don't think it's the exhaust but it could be a tiny leak somewhere at the front of the system but how do I find out?! Or could it be something completely different? pretty sure the boot seal's ok. I just wanna chuck away what ever's wrong and replace it but there's nothing obviously wrong!!

If you can get it up(the car) or crawl under it, get someone to block the tail pipe a few seconds at a time and check if you can see or hear it blowing. Pull the breather pipe off and see how much crankcase gas is coming out. HTH

Cheers! So the breather pipe is the one coming off the rocker cover, right? and how much crankcase gas should be coming out? sorry, I know nothing about breather pipes! other than that they carry nasty fumes...

Well it shouldnt look like a steam train !!!!

And if it does what's the problem?!

If it does then something in the motor is letting compression into the crankcase eg: valve seat, rings etc. But dont get worried just yet, they are good motors, not cheapos.

I would get the CO checked, all MOT test stations have these.

You would have to be burning alot of oil to make your eyes stream, its probably over fuelling.

Danstable

Your car is probably using more fuel than it should due to this plug in the lamda sensor, the ECU monitors the exhaust and adjusts the fuelling to achieve whats called "Stoic" which is the perfect fuel/air ratio for efficiency. You may find your fuelling is all over the place with this 'plug' in the lamda sensor cable.

I can understand why you've droped the cat from the car, maybe you should look into changing the ECU for a non cat type if this is possible. It might even be just a case of chipping the car with a non cat chip. I'm sure the experts will know.

HTH

Andy_magic wrote:I would get the CO checked, all MOT test stations have these.

You would have to be burning alot of oil to make your eyes stream, its probably over fuelling.

Danstable

Your car is probably using more fuel than it should due to this plug in the lamda sensor, the ECU monitors the exhaust and adjusts the fuelling to achieve whats called "Stoic" which is the perfect fuel/air ratio for efficiency. You may find your fuelling is all over the place with this 'plug' in the lamda sensor cable.

I can understand why you've droped the cat from the car, maybe you should look into changing the ECU for a non cat type if this is possible. It might even be just a case of chipping the car with a non cat chip. I'm sure the experts will know.

HTH

You took the word's right out of my mouth geese

After some more thinking about this you might need to change the AFM too as apparently the cat equipped cars dont have an adjustment on the AFM for CO settings as its all taken care of by the ECU.

Good information there fellas, thanks. Another job on the ever growing list.

And another thing, the car is difficult to start sometimes (usually when warm). I have to turn it over excessively and then the engine catches....just. It sort of splutters into life and is then fine.

Also, the performance seems fine, nothing missing there.