I feel like I should celebrate or something.
I have been fighting an idle issue with a new (to me) 89 325is for the past month. I would start the car and it would idle at 700rpm for about 10-15 seconds then drop-out sometimes cleaning back up and sometimes stalling out requiring re-start. Placing the car in reverse (automatic) the car would sputter and try to die. Once under speed the car would run, but anytime you came to a stop the car would try and die. So I did all the typical steps of
cleaned the ICV with MAF cleaner, inspected the intake hose for cracks (none, looked great), replaced the TPS and adjusted it, changed-out the AFM for a known good one, checked all my vaccum lines, double checked my vacuum lines again. Arghh, still sputtering and cutting out!!
I was getting ready to start looking at the fuel pressure/fuel pump/fuel injectors as a next step, but decided to pull everything off one more time.
In the process these are the only things I did.
1) Added a fresh air filter to the air box.
2) Put new plugs in the car (none were oil fouled, just a bit of crud on them but looked pretty decent for a high mileage car)
3) Pulled my throttle body again and double checked my TPS adjustment which was good and required no adjustment.
4) Put everything back together, but this time went the extra step to wrap some teflon tape around the three fittings that insert into the throttle body (1 coming from the ICV on the left side of the t-body and 2 for the brake booster coming out of the right side of the t-body).
After this effort I started the car and I had a solid idle. Let it run for a bit and revved it a bit no sputtering. At this point I turned the car off and decided I would try again later. Two hours later I got the same results. At this point I was getting optimistic but felt that it was surely some kind of fluke and still didn't take it out for a drive. This evening I started it a third time and all was good again. I put the car in reverse and dead solid with no sputtering or dying. Took it for a spin and it ran fine the entire drive even when coming to a stop.
So...based on the results of everything I have tried I truly believe my issues were related to those little press-fit aluminum fittings being loose in the throttle body and allowing air to be pulled-in causing sporadic sputtering and overall poor idle and performance.
Just wanted to share that experience as anyone else that is fighting an idle gremlin with their e30 might want to check those fittings and try the teflon tape trick to see if it helps. Teflon tape is really cheap and if it works you have saved a bit of money.
Jeff
I have been fighting an idle issue with a new (to me) 89 325is for the past month. I would start the car and it would idle at 700rpm for about 10-15 seconds then drop-out sometimes cleaning back up and sometimes stalling out requiring re-start. Placing the car in reverse (automatic) the car would sputter and try to die. Once under speed the car would run, but anytime you came to a stop the car would try and die. So I did all the typical steps of
cleaned the ICV with MAF cleaner, inspected the intake hose for cracks (none, looked great), replaced the TPS and adjusted it, changed-out the AFM for a known good one, checked all my vaccum lines, double checked my vacuum lines again. Arghh, still sputtering and cutting out!!
I was getting ready to start looking at the fuel pressure/fuel pump/fuel injectors as a next step, but decided to pull everything off one more time.
In the process these are the only things I did.
1) Added a fresh air filter to the air box.
2) Put new plugs in the car (none were oil fouled, just a bit of crud on them but looked pretty decent for a high mileage car)
3) Pulled my throttle body again and double checked my TPS adjustment which was good and required no adjustment.
4) Put everything back together, but this time went the extra step to wrap some teflon tape around the three fittings that insert into the throttle body (1 coming from the ICV on the left side of the t-body and 2 for the brake booster coming out of the right side of the t-body).
After this effort I started the car and I had a solid idle. Let it run for a bit and revved it a bit no sputtering. At this point I turned the car off and decided I would try again later. Two hours later I got the same results. At this point I was getting optimistic but felt that it was surely some kind of fluke and still didn't take it out for a drive. This evening I started it a third time and all was good again. I put the car in reverse and dead solid with no sputtering or dying. Took it for a spin and it ran fine the entire drive even when coming to a stop.
So...based on the results of everything I have tried I truly believe my issues were related to those little press-fit aluminum fittings being loose in the throttle body and allowing air to be pulled-in causing sporadic sputtering and overall poor idle and performance.
Just wanted to share that experience as anyone else that is fighting an idle gremlin with their e30 might want to check those fittings and try the teflon tape trick to see if it helps. Teflon tape is really cheap and if it works you have saved a bit of money.
Jeff
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