E30 Zone

Posted: **Wed Feb 20, 2008 4:17 pm**

Hi hope some one can help, had a read through posts but cant find anything the same.
car is a f reg 318 (not 318i) e30 saloon.
Car starts no problem at all, drives fine but if you stop at a junction within say a couple of miles it stalls. After stalling it restarts straight away without any problems. once the car is warm it doesn't stall at all. This only happens every so often.

Thanks for any help.

Posted: **Wed Feb 20, 2008 7:04 pm**

Could try your AFM

Posted: **Wed Feb 20, 2008 8:12 pm**

hello mate,with your car being a 318 and not an I, i presume its a carb model with a mechanicaly driven pump off the cam?. does the car hunt or miss at all on restart?

Posted: **Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:01 pm**

hello mate,with your car being a 318 and not an I

AHHH missed that

Posted: **Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:13 am**

Hi there, sometimes it hunts yes and apparently it has hunted at idle in the past. Had to go and ask him its the old mans car.

Posted: **Thu Feb 21, 2008 6:27 pm**

is the car driven hard or hardish from cold?, i tell you why im asking, because the car has a 2 stage throttle, the first stage is operated manually ie- your right foot, the second stage is vaccum operated, which makes me think that possibly you have a vaccum leak?, check all the little vac pipes round the carb, especially if their the nasty cloth braided stuff!, if in doubt chuck them out!... or secondly the auto choke needs adjusting or replacement?...

Posted: **Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:22 pm**

i have the same prob with mine though mines injected not carbed , im thinking its the fuel pump ? could this be the case ?

what should a 318i M40 engine idle at ?

Posted: **Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:26 pm**

800+-40

Posted: **Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:28 pm**

cheers , mines at about 600 , raised it yesterday and seemed ok

today its lower again , hunts from cold especially and cuts out every now and then , can hear the fuel pump when the cars idling and im stood outside , not sure thats normal

Posted: **Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:07 pm**

james318i wrote:cheers , mines at about 600 , raised it yesterday

How? Idle speed is not adjustable.

Posted: **Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:15 pm**

harveynickels wrote:Hi hope some one can help, had a read through posts but cant find anything the same.
car is a f reg 318 (not 318i) e30 saloon.
Car starts no problem at all, drives fine but if you stop at a junction within say a couple of miles it stalls. After stalling it restarts straight away without any problems. once the car is warm it doesn't stall at all. This only happens every so often.

Thanks for any help.

If this is a carb car, it's a 316 not a 318, although it has a 1.8l engine.
If it has the original carb still on it, the problem is with the feedback potentiometer on the carb which works with a vacuum operated servo and the ECU to control the idle speed. It's extremely rare to find one of these set ups that's still working!
My very first E30, many years ago, was one of these, and I tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to repair the system many times. Eventually I fitted a conventional screw type throttle stop and removed the servo altogether.
Shortly after I sold this car, the job was done properly, by fitting a Webber carb. in place of the original.

Posted: **Thu Feb 21, 2008 9:14 pm**

solex are the devils work!

Posted: **Thu Feb 21, 2008 10:09 pm**

hi brian ,

is it not adjustable on the injected cars ? on my throttle linkage theres a locknut + adjuster which i presumed was for idle speed ? god knows what ive adjusted then

james

Posted: **Thu Feb 21, 2008 10:33 pm**

The stop you have adjusted is to stop the throttle butterfly wedging itself in the throttle body. It does not set the idle speed, which is controlled entirely by the ECU.
Adjusting this screw makes it impossible for the ICV to work properly, and messes up the operation of the throttle position switch!!
Put it back where it was, start looking for the real fault, and NEVER touch it again! You have only masked one fault by introducing another fault.

Posted: **Fri Feb 22, 2008 12:42 am**

If this is a carb car, it's a 316 not a 318, although it has a 1.8l engine.
If it has the original carb still on it, the problem is with the feedback potentiometer on the carb which works with a vacuum operated servo and the ECU to control the idle speed. It's extremely rare to find one of these set ups that's still working!
My very first E30, many years ago, was one of these, and I tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to repair the system many times. Eventually I fitted a conventional screw type throttle stop and removed the servo altogether.
Shortly after I sold this car, the job was done properly, by fitting a Webber carb. in place of the original

Yes that sounds about right, my mistake, yes its 316 with the 1.8. Yep everything is original, i see the vacuum servo you are talking about. How did the car run with the manual throttle stop? where did you get the manual throttle stop? or did you make it yourself?

Posted: **Fri Feb 22, 2008 9:37 am**

Crank case compression? Are all of you breather hoses, oil cap and dip stick sealed?

Posted: **Fri Feb 22, 2008 4:16 pm**

cheers brian , il do it this evening

Posted: **Fri Feb 22, 2008 6:18 pm**

Carb gasket knackered maybe ? Had the same problem with my old E21 316. Took the carb off and then resealed it with some liquid gasket which cured my problem immediatly.

Posted: **Fri Feb 22, 2008 6:29 pm**

georgen wrote:Carb gasket knackered maybe ?.

Possible, but considering my carb was knackered at about six years old (this was fifeteen years ago!), the chances of one still being in pristine condition today, must be very small!
There was an obvious boss on my carb that would have had a throttle stop screw in it on an older version of the carb, so I drilled and tapped this, and fitted a small screw with a small coil spring to keep it from turning.

E30 Zone

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