Cold start, Unable to drive.

[fiftytakedowns]

Recently Got a 1991 318is not to long ago.

The car runs well, and drives well ONLY when FULLY warmed up.

PO said the ICV could be bad, but I took it to a shop, and they said all need to do is clean the ICV (regarding the ICV problem). So I cleaned it iwth some brake clean shook it up and repeated.

Symptoms.

Car starts fine, and idles a little rough, with some minor surging, not noticable by RPM, only by ear.
If I put it in gear and start to drive before the heat needle is smack dab in the middle. It will rev up to about 2.5, and Bog down with my foot is on the gas. If I take my foot up, and try again it will rev up a bit more, then bog down again. sometimes it will bog down, and get spurts in and out of normal driving conditions.

Goes away once warm.

I also found out that the PO had deleted the Heater plate, not sure what else he has done,
but he said it could use a dinan chip, and yet the car will willfully rev to about 7000. seems like it does not have a limiter, or there may be a chip in the car already.

could this affect the car when it is warm with milage etc...?

Clean air filter P.s.
ICV is upsidown, but the arrow is facing the correct way.
2002 guy that found an E30 as a daily
I dont know much about e30's but I have searched a bunch.


Thanks

[gearheadE30]

Sounds almost like a fuel feed issue. There is a temp sensor under the intake that tells the chip which fuel map to use, and it may be sending a bad signal. Not 100% sure though.

Have you gone throught the vacuum lines to make sure there are no leaks?

The stock chip should have a limiter around 6700 to 6800 iirc, but I never really hit it with the old chip. If you want a chip, check out markD's chips at dsylva-tech.ca. They are the best for the M42.

The heater plate will not cause an issue unless it is near 0 out, and even then a very specific set of circumstances have to occur.

[fiftytakedowns]

Assuming that sensor is bad, what would I have to do to check to see if it is good, or bad.

[fiftytakedowns]

I took a look at the engine bay looking for anything that could be corroded or any leaks that could occur. There was definitley no vacuum leaks that were obviously apparent. The hoses were all replaced by the PO.

I am stuck upon what could be the problem. I have to wait about 10 minutes to drive the car, or else it will agressively bog down at 1500 RPM. Sometimes sputter

[fiftytakedowns]

My check engine light only goes on sometimes, right after I turn on the motor, then it goes away after a couple of minutes. never goes on when I am driving though.

I will try the engine codes thing. see what I can get.

I might have an easier way to describe the problem also.

as the car warms up the number(Rev) for which it chokes out, and the motor decelerates increases at the same rate as the needle moves along the temp gauges. For example chokes out at 1500 RPM completely cold and then 2000RPm at about 1/4 distance, etc... Also chokes out or bogs, when I am just revving up the motor.

There is also a bumpy,surging Idle until the motor is cold.

Thanks

[BraveUlysses]

How old are your plugs?

[ieatpeople]

my 88 528e does the same thing, sometimes when its cold, anything over 1/4 throttle will make it bog terribly. if you lift throttle slightly, it will rev to about 3500rpm, but no higher in each gear until it warms up a little (maybe 3 miles at 40mph). but it doesn't always do it, and the first time it happened i thought i had blown the head gasket or something because of how bad it ran. if you just hold the gas pedal down it makes a sound like anti-lag on a rally car, but through the intake, not the exhaust.

[fiftytakedowns]

my 88 528e does the same thing, sometimes when its cold, anything over 1/4 throttle will make it bog terribly. if you lift throttle slightly, it will rev to about 3500rpm, but no higher in each gear until it warms up a little (maybe 3 miles at 40mph). but it doesn't always do it, and the first time it happened i thought i had blown the head gasket or something because of how bad it ran. if you just hold the gas pedal down it makes a sound like anti-lag on a rally car, but through the intake, not the exhaust.

I am not sure how to respond to this.





but the car does need new plugs, although I dont know how that would only affect warm up period. Thanks

[fiftytakedowns]

*sigh*

I took it to my shop, and replaced the coolant temperature sensor, triple checked for vacuum leaks, and cleaned out the AFM, in addition to attempting to adjust it with the little screw behind the plug. Not much of a help..

Checked fuel pressure, checked plugs, both good.

I am guessing it is probably the AFM, because when we searched for vacuum leaks with brake clean,inake cleaner (the fumes change the idle) it smoothed out the idle when it was at the very beginning of the Intake before the filter.

also plugged in a BMW Diagnostics computer. No help. It had diagnosis code 10 not lsited as anything on worldpac. and that was the number we got. (we plugged the mini computer into the jack right near the brake fluid at the lip of the hood.

HELP I want this fixed!

[Liam]

Does it buck and kick kind of?

It is an odd one you have there.

I would want to see the "live data" from the DME before I guessed at a diagnoses but the first thing that comes to mind is the O2 sensor (this will not make sense to a lot of techs here because the logic will seem backwards to them).

My second guesses would be the fuel pressure regulator or TPS.

Without seeing on proper BMW diagnostic equipment what computer is doing I'm really shooting in the dark.

[fiftytakedowns]

We checked the fuel pressure, and it was normal.
Where would I check out the "live data"?

I am not quite sure it would be the 02 sensor, because the car passed smog right before I bought it, unless the person I bought it from swapped it out, with the cat right after it got approved.

[fiftytakedowns]

replaced the AFM, not the AFM. Hesitates and sputters at 3K

[Danny]

O2 sensor or something fuel related.

I take it back, its your coil packs.

[fiftytakedowns]

is there a way to test those damn things?

[fiftytakedowns]

Ok after I replaced the afm I thoought the cold start would be better. Not the case. Seemed almost worse. Also my milage seems to down a bit.