is my 85 318i supposed to suck this bad?

[Rampelsauce]

Also keep in mind that you drive the slowest BMW known to man at 6000 ft. It's going to run like shit anyway and if a Bentley manual is too pricey for your broke ass perhaps this is not the car for you. I hear Civics are really cheap these days...

lol to the power of two.

[kway]

No, it's not supposed to suck that bad.

The raging shitbox '85 I had years ago was dog slow when I got it, but I'd had an '84 before that, so I knew it wasn't supposed to be THAT slow. I went through all the same shit you're going through with no luck. I finally threw a fuel pump at it (I might have done both, I don't remember) just as a shot in the dark, and the car woke right up. AMAZING difference.

A pump can produce enough pressure to run the car, but not put out the volume it needs for higher load/rpms. The bad fuel mileage has me second guessing that, but if you have to run wide open just to get anywhere, you might still burn a bunch of fuel just because of how inefficiently it's running. The other possibility I thought about was a plugged cat, how freely does it r3v when you're just sitting still?

[gone002]

id check for vacum leaks
mine had a ton
the last one was at the brake booster
oh yeah check the exhuast mani for cracks...
kinda notrious for failure

[Chabs]

check O2 sensor

[severnrc]

2 most probable causes for your complaint are plugged/restricted exhaust, and timing issues. If your timing was WAY off, you could have been passing unburned fuel and as a result could have melted your CAT, plugging your exhaust

just my 2 cents

[a3ternus]

Yea def needs a good tune up. I was getting around 20mpg driving like a grandma.

I seafoam'd, new air filter, new cap & rotor, new sparkplugs/wires, oil change. Now she runs like a champ & I'm getting about 34 highway. still need to do a vavle adjustment & see if I can sqeeze out another mpg or two.

That worked even with a 4.27 LSD! Definately better economy...
N.