Car goes koo koo bananas: revs up & cuts out randomly-he

Post Mon Jul 25, 2005 2:46 pm

Any help would be great. Have a E30 4-door 316i Lux 1991, Black.
I have had this for 6months. When you start it, it is v.reluctant to start, and almost stalls. If you leave off the gas pedal most of the time it clears its self and idles at between 500-1100rpm.

For no reason at all (happens at different speeds/weather/times in the journey) it suddenly can either rev up to about 2500-3000rpm, and then cut out, or just cut out (complete loss of power). Starting is no good for the first 2 minutes: engine will turn over but won't fire, but normally after this it will just starts fine. It is in great condition, and had done just over 100k, and I want to sort it rather than sell it. In the last 6 months I have had changed: HT leads, spark plugs, belts, airflow sensor, distributor, (and also the headgasket). I am at a loss to know what is wrong. Could anyone lend some of their good advice, would be great
Cheers
James

Post Mon Jul 25, 2005 2:52 pm

do u have access 2 another ecu that u could try 4 a couple of days?

Post Mon Jul 25, 2005 3:00 pm

Thanks for the suggestion, forgot to say that I've kept the old one out of my old 1991 316i and have changed it over, with no obvious difference.

I have been looking through a few pages here since posting: could it be any of the following? (or which would you think would be most likely?)

Fuel Pump
Fuel Pump Relay
Crank position sensor
Engine Rev. Sensor
Fuel Pressure Regulator
Throttle position sensor
DME Relay

Cheers, James

Post Mon Jul 25, 2005 3:02 pm

it could b pretty much any of them but id try relays first and go from there

Post Mon Jul 25, 2005 3:35 pm

Cheers anyway - will have a look around. i just can't get over the random and irratic idling at times: like someone else is controling the car's gas pedal. Not into supernatural crap but has made me wonder....

Post Mon Jul 25, 2005 4:03 pm

Have you cleaned the idle control valve ?

Post Mon Jul 25, 2005 4:13 pm

Also check for vacuum leeks, especailly the big bellow from the AFM to the untake manifold. If its split it can cause missing and a whole host of other problems

Post Mon Jul 25, 2005 5:24 pm

does it have a cat on it if some it maybe the sensor on there as i had same trouble with an escort rs 2000 whitch done exactly what you descibe:)