Weird Is problem

Tue May 16, 2006 10:31 pm

my Is has developed a weird fault

from cold and when warm although it never use to when warm, my car seems to misfire mostly around corners or from standing starts. The car jolts once or twice extremely violently then drivers perfectly in a straight line. then once i get to a roundabout or a bend, it will randomly missfire once then carry on

i was told by the MOT man my hydrocarbons are high

iv got a new airflow meter il fit 2moro

other than a TPS or a blue temp sender what else could it be? what gets me is its only really round corners excpet the occasional stnading start. fuel pump mb?

please help!

Tue May 16, 2006 10:36 pm

Dude, thats f*cked up!!

i'll have a think, n get back to you!!

Tue May 16, 2006 10:53 pm

The only other time i have seen this was with a Fiat.... the ignition switch was knackered, the weight of the keys swinging around from the lock made the ignition cut in and out as it swung round corners.. took me weeks to sort it out! mainly because the owner only ever lent me a single key to diagnose the fault when it was left with me.......

Tue May 16, 2006 11:06 pm

Il try driving with just the key in 2moro, never heard of that on a bmw though!

Tue May 16, 2006 11:07 pm

Do you hear the engine misfire or just feel it ?
To me it sounds more like your diff and/or gearbox is on its way out

Tue May 16, 2006 11:11 pm

dont here it as such but deffo feels like engine fault,

sum1 else mentioned clutch to me but it feels fine

The diff is seeping oil, but use to whine and has now stopped

So i guess it could be them as well, why only round corners though and form stnading starts. I spose it never does it on idle either which must rule out a sensor as such??

Tue May 16, 2006 11:52 pm

The internal gears in the diff only get used when one wheel is turning faster than the other (cornering) so if its leaked all the oil and has now stopped whinning because you've worn out the gears it will only be apparent when in a tight turn.
Don't bother putting some oil in it now, it's too late

If it does it when you pull away in a straight line i suspect thats the gearbox as well (idler bearings)

Tue May 16, 2006 11:56 pm

Martinaston wrote:The internal gears in the diff only get used when one wheel is turning faster than the other (cornering) so if its leaked all the oil and has now stopped whinning because you've worn out the gears it will only be apparent when in a tight turn.
Don't bother putting some oil in it now, it's too late
If it does it when you pull away in a straight line i suspect thats the gearbox as well (idler bearings)

Funny you should say that, gearbox also makes a weird whining noise when its been used for an our or so but ian hamilton and others assured me this was a standard procedure on e30 boes an that it was nothing to worry about?

Wed May 17, 2006 12:02 am

You may want to check the gearbox oil level before that gives out.

With the diff the tighter the corner the bigger the jolt, give it a try at idling speed or very light throttle.

Wed May 17, 2006 12:07 am

the thing is its completely random. for the majority of corners it wont do it, an then all of a sudden it will, so i could drive 10 or 11 corners before n e thing happens

Wed May 17, 2006 11:53 am

ok,

fitted a new afm today (thanks ben aka fowler). haev 2 start sumwere i guess, but it was running high on HCs anyway so this had to be done. initially the idle was all over the shot at like 600rpm; switched the ignition off, restarted it and it was fine. idle is spot on an it smells less rich.

i only went for a short drive, but the car does seem a lot less violent on corners and pulling awaym although i stress its was only a short drive. you can still feel it hesitiating round corners too but not as bad now. now martin has mentioned it also, im not altogether sure its coming from the engine?

am going for a long drive later so will post then!

Sun May 21, 2006 2:50 pm

Right today basically ruled out the box or diff as being at fault

firstly, the car started outside my hosue then died about three seconds later. I then started it again and it was ok, thought it must have been due to the cold or something. Then driving up the road, the car was acting strange as usual, until at one point there was no response from the throttle at all. i let the car idle then it drove off again.

then the next junction i came too, the car would died and would not start at all. i tried numerous times but it turned over and did not fire. after waiting about two minutes it eventually started up agian and i drove off and pulled over. upon driving the car again, whenever the accelerator is depressed, teh car would defanatly misfire and the car jsut "dies" as such and did not have any response.

I then turned the car off and it would not restart, the same as what happened at the junction occured again. eventually when it restarted, i unplugged the air flow metre and limped home.

cam sensor is what iv discussed with someone else, im pretty sure its this!

any ideas guys other than cam sensor?

Mon May 22, 2006 11:16 am

Anyone?

it did it again this morning! please help!

Mon May 22, 2006 11:30 am

Something similiar happened with my 320i. I had been stuffing about testing the Temp Sensor ( Blue One) and I did not connect it back up correctly. Started the car and it was fine so I went for a test drive. It was only a couple of miles down the road when the car started to misfire and jerk sudenly under load. I pulled over and the car died. It was only when I connected the sendor up correctly that everything was fine. If yours is only occuring round corners it could be that you have a bad loose connection which is seperating when on bumpy roads / roundabouts. Only an idea.

Mon May 22, 2006 11:36 am

The resistance on my temperature sensor is wrong anway, so i will be replacing that very soon. however im pretty sure its connected properly

Mon May 22, 2006 2:48 pm

318-is wrote:The resistance on my temperature sensor is wrong anway, so i will be replacing that very soon. however im pretty sure its connected properly

somewhere to start Dan...

have you got any air leaks in the intake system???

Mon May 22, 2006 7:06 pm

no none at all mate

my old car had an air leak an i know where your coming from, but this is just not the case. iv looked and looked and used the old wd40 trick

its also an intermitent fault; for instance left for college this morning, car was totally fucket, left at 6pm tonight, car hadent run once in the day and it drove home fine!

Mon May 22, 2006 10:37 pm

this might sound stupid, but try letting the car idle, and flick the DME relay, which is the orange one under the cowling i think!

it maybe that the force of cornering is causing a shoddy relay to misbehave???

or have you checked anything to do with your fuel pump? this could explain the 'only on corners' part of the problem...

did you put your bbtb on correctly???

i remember my iS cut out and wouldnt start after i went over a speed hump. i spent ages with the bonnet up looking for what was wrong and couldnt see anything, alas to find that the bellow for the intake manifold had fallen slightly, and was creating a gap at the bottom! so everything looked ok, but i had to search real hard. just a possibility this happened to yours???

is your crankshaft sensor gunked up with shit? i've had a scenario where a small stone had flicked up and gpt wedged in between the crankpulley and the sensor...

just trying to help you elliminate possibilites....

by the way, what does 'iirc' mean again?!

Mon May 22, 2006 11:20 pm

stuartgallafant wrote:
by the way, what does 'iirc' mean again?!

If i remember correcly

Tue May 23, 2006 12:56 am

Some good points there stu;

BBTB has been on for fookin ages!

got a pick of this relay??

the cam sensor is pretty dirrty, guna clean it up wednesday but pretty sure this is at fault. crank sensor have not looked at but about a month ago when i fixed my PAS pump i gave it a good clean then!

iv driven it twice tonight and it has not been at fault! fookin intermitent bastard it is!

Tue May 23, 2006 8:49 am

You could try a fuel filter - if this is very dirty it could cause the symptoms you describe.

Tue May 23, 2006 11:35 pm

Dan, the relay is beneath the black cowling on your bulkhead, sitting just above the back of the engine. in there should be two relays, one orange, and one white. one of them is the DME relay, i think its the orange one...

Tue May 23, 2006 11:42 pm

Chris-W wrote:You could try a fuel filter - if this is very dirty it could cause the symptoms you describe.

Replaced this less than 3000 miles ago!!

stuartgallafant wrote:Dan, the relay is beneath the black cowling on your bulkhead, sitting just above the back of the engine. in there should be two relays, one orange, and one white. one of them is the DME relay, i think its the orange one...

Will check that 2moro

should hopefully be picking up a spare CamPS of Kos so will let you know if that does it

Thu May 25, 2006 9:01 pm

how you getting on Dan?

Thu May 25, 2006 9:09 pm

picking up cam sensor tonight and coolant temp sensor from bmw 2moro

will fit them if i can break into my garage as i lost the only key

will let y'all no! (although it hasnt done it for two days :S)

Wed May 31, 2006 6:32 pm

ok replaced coolant temperature sensor earlier in the week, and also did a lot of resistnace checking on the major engine sensors thanks to tim today. cam and crank sensors both came up ok, TPS was a tiny bit off but nothing of major concern, so im fast running out of ideas.

also swapped the relays over that stuart mentioned with tims working ones, no change!

the car is also idling ridiulously; i think an air leak mite be to blame for that one but that would not explain why the car jolts etc in the morning intermitantly; was also thinking fuel pump but i swear its overfueling and not underfueling?

am going to double check the condition of the plugs tomorrow to see if there is a certain cylinder that is the problem

any other ideas people - this is getting to me now![/code]

Wed May 31, 2006 7:53 pm

You haven't mentioned the ICV. Probably worth a try.

Wed May 31, 2006 8:08 pm

Or the HT leads, (or have you?, I'm too lazy to read it all)
Could be a dodgy lead that gives out when cornering, give them a good shake while it's running.
I had one that was fine untill it reached 3k rpm and then was ok again over 3 and a half

Thu Jun 01, 2006 11:29 am

Martinaston wrote:Or the HT leads, (or have you?, I'm too lazy to read it all)
Could be a dodgy lead that gives out when cornering, give them a good shake while it's running.
I had one that was fine untill it reached 3k rpm and then was ok again over 3 and a half

Disconnected these yesterday while the engine was running, an it seemed they are all ok. Checked the connections too and all seemed undamaged. what test can i carry out on the leads using a multimeter?

Essbee, looked at the ICV yesterday, think that might be the problem for the idle but how would this cause stuttering etc??

am going to check every sensor later using my meter and post it up, think im going to try and rule out injection today

Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:29 pm

318-is wrote:
Martinaston wrote:Or the HT leads, (or have you?, I'm too lazy to read it all)
Could be a dodgy lead that gives out when cornering, give them a good shake while it's running.
I had one that was fine untill it reached 3k rpm and then was ok again over 3 and a half
Disconnected these yesterday while the engine was running, an it seemed they are all ok. Checked the connections too and all seemed undamaged. what test can i carry out on the leads using a multimeter?

Essbee, looked at the ICV yesterday, think that might be the problem for the idle but how would this cause stuttering etc??

am going to check every sensor later using my meter and post it up, think im going to try and rule out injection today

dan try some new leads in there fella for a start, fix your idle before doing anything else. i believe our leads are 1kohm, so meter them.i wouldnt be at all surprised if you've got more than one prob going on, your idle prob doesnt seem to be related to the stumble. your ICV isnt causing the idle prob, it was idling just as badly without the ICV plugged in - its not an idle speed problem per se, its a rough idle, could be missing. you got a spare standard ECU btw? if so stick that in, it may have something to do with the idle speed. if you want to buy my leads off me for a decent price i'll do it as wouldnt mind some magnecors for mine. try to find out why it appears to be idling high too, get a new rev guage, yours is clearly sticking after that pvs owner did such a good job of painting the needles.
i would def take the fuel pump out and take a look, replace it if poss. see if you can get a pressure gauge hooked up to the fuel rail and take her for a drive and see whether you're getting fuel when its lurching. does the prob happen more when the tank is emptyish? does rocking the car when its sat cause any probs (didnt try that!)? getting the CO screw properly set would do no harm either. try to find out what the fuel smell is all about, you may have a leak. next time i see you i'll read the fault codes, though my laptop with carsoft is a bit buggered now and only works on AC.

Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:51 pm

tim_s wrote:
318-is wrote:
Martinaston wrote:Or the HT leads, (or have you?, I'm too lazy to read it all)
Could be a dodgy lead that gives out when cornering, give them a good shake while it's running.
I had one that was fine untill it reached 3k rpm and then was ok again over 3 and a half
Disconnected these yesterday while the engine was running, an it seemed they are all ok. Checked the connections too and all seemed undamaged. what test can i carry out on the leads using a multimeter?

Essbee, looked at the ICV yesterday, think that might be the problem for the idle but how would this cause stuttering etc??

am going to check every sensor later using my meter and post it up, think im going to try and rule out injection today
dan try some new leads in there fella for a start, fix your idle before doing anything else. i believe our leads are 1kohm, so meter them.i wouldnt be at all surprised if you've got more than one prob going on, your idle prob doesnt seem to be related to the stumble. your ICV isnt causing the idle prob, it was idling just as badly without the ICV plugged in - its not an idle speed problem per se, its a rough idle, could be missing. you got a spare standard ECU btw? if so stick that in, it may have something to do with the idle speed. if you want to buy my leads off me for a decent price i'll do it as wouldnt mind some magnecors for mine. try to find out why it appears to be idling high too, get a new rev guage, yours is clearly sticking after that pvs owner did such a good job of painting the needles.
i would def take the fuel pump out and take a look, replace it if poss. see if you can get a pressure gauge hooked up to the fuel rail and take her for a drive and see whether you're getting fuel when its lurching. does the prob happen more when the tank is emptyish? does rocking the car when its sat cause any probs (didnt try that!)? getting the CO screw properly set would do no harm either. try to find out what the fuel smell is all about, you may have a leak. next time i see you i'll read the fault codes, though my laptop with carsoft is a bit buggered now and only works on AC.

Will meter the leads in a minute. 1000ohms is that taking a reading from one end or both?

since yesterday tim car has not missed a beat. removed the plugs today and they are all greenish brown, none sooted up or anything. A little birdy once told me all fuel pumps are the same for e30s? maybe il go to the scrappy tomorrow.

Amount of fuel doesnt make any difference at all no. had 15 quid in there the other day n it still was going it

re: the gauge, Co screw etc is that something you can do with your fault reader?