Hey everyone, so a while back I was driving my e30 in the city when I noticed a significant loss of power and throttle lag. Shortly thereafter the motor started vibrating incredibly violently -- enough to shake the whole car, leaving me with a no-start condition. Towed it home and began diagnosing things. Two days before this happened, my cluster started reading my coolant temp incorrectly, but the cluster is also known bad (gauges stick a LOT)
At first I suspected that I had simply ran out of fuel since I don't trust the ancient fuel sender and I knew I was low, but I soon started hearing the tell-tale signs of the fuel pump's bearings going out. Bingo, or so I thought.
I've since done a lot of fiddling around, diagnosing things, replacing obviously worn components etc and I've gotten it to the point where it reliably starts, but it idles rough and low at about 500rpm and it sometimes dies on idle when the motor's still cold. At some point it was bucking, surging, and hunting for idle (dropping to almost-stall, then revving to 3000rpm) but that seems to be fixed now. It gets a little better when the car's warmed up, but it's still bad. The car drives like nothing ever happened and the motor sounds healthy when it's not on idle.
I've probably missed a few things, but here's what I can remember I've done to it:
- Cleaned ICV, seemed to open/close smoothly but I haven't taken a multimeter to it yet. was insanely gunked up and took almost an entire can of carb cleaner.
- Replaced and adjusted TPS
- Replaced spark plugs (old)
- Replaced distributor cap (tracks even, but old)
- Replaced rotor arm (old)
- Cleaned AFM, opens/closes smoothly
- Replaced coolant temp sensor/blue plug (could only find VDO, only non-OE/OEM part on the car, have heard people had issues with this part?)
- Adjusted throttle/cruise control cable
- Replaced fuel filter (old)
- Replaced fuel pump (grinding noise)
- Inspected fuel tank, no rust or any debris that could be clogging the pump filter. Old fuel pump filter with 250,000 miles on it (yikes!) looked great.
- Replaced FPR (vacuum line fouled with fuel)
- Tested spark, appears to be good (but I do not know quality of spark)
- Cleaned throttle body
- Replaced ICV hose
- Replaced valve cover breather hose
- Replaced clamps on all vacuum hoses
- Epoxied the metal vacuum fittings onto the throttle body
- Accidentally snapped the wire off my impulse sensor on the spark plug wires while I was doing the cap and rotor like a tard
- Attempted to check fuel pressure on the rail, but the fuel line's end was pretty rotted so I gave up -- How hard is this hose to access/replace? Is there enough slack to slice the end off?
- Attempted to stomp test, but the car won't stomp. TPS/cables are adjusted and confirmed good, assuming I have an old ECU (1988 model, it could go either way depending on production date)
- Bled coolant when I needed to
I am running out of culprits and I still don't know what's going on with the car. I'm also running out of money, this has burned through my savings and driving is my only option to commute. Car is throwing a CEL, but I can't stomp to see the code and I can't find a place to rent me a code reader that will work on this car.
Also another thing, the car revs when I spray carb cleaner on the left side of the throttle body indicating unmetered air is getting in somewhere over there. The problem is, I've already sealed up the metal fittings, replaced the ICV hose, replaced the crankcase breather hose, so there shouldn't be anything else that can possibly vaccum leak over there can there? WTF? The only other thing over there I can think of are three coolant hoses.
The only things left I can even think that could be causing this are the ICV, ECU, or the fuel injectors. I'm almost so out of things to diagnose that I'm beginning to suspect very unlikely things like a skipped tooth on my T-belt. Any ideas? I'm grasping at straws here and both of the local mechanics I've had recommended to me never returned my calls.
Bonus points if anyone who reads this lives vaguely around the Seattle area who has a known good ECU or ICV I could test out, or one of those Peake code readers. I can probably get the car to you, worst case I just give you collateral or cover your gas and lunch to come out to me.
At first I suspected that I had simply ran out of fuel since I don't trust the ancient fuel sender and I knew I was low, but I soon started hearing the tell-tale signs of the fuel pump's bearings going out. Bingo, or so I thought.
I've since done a lot of fiddling around, diagnosing things, replacing obviously worn components etc and I've gotten it to the point where it reliably starts, but it idles rough and low at about 500rpm and it sometimes dies on idle when the motor's still cold. At some point it was bucking, surging, and hunting for idle (dropping to almost-stall, then revving to 3000rpm) but that seems to be fixed now. It gets a little better when the car's warmed up, but it's still bad. The car drives like nothing ever happened and the motor sounds healthy when it's not on idle.
I've probably missed a few things, but here's what I can remember I've done to it:
- Cleaned ICV, seemed to open/close smoothly but I haven't taken a multimeter to it yet. was insanely gunked up and took almost an entire can of carb cleaner.
- Replaced and adjusted TPS
- Replaced spark plugs (old)
- Replaced distributor cap (tracks even, but old)
- Replaced rotor arm (old)
- Cleaned AFM, opens/closes smoothly
- Replaced coolant temp sensor/blue plug (could only find VDO, only non-OE/OEM part on the car, have heard people had issues with this part?)
- Adjusted throttle/cruise control cable
- Replaced fuel filter (old)
- Replaced fuel pump (grinding noise)
- Inspected fuel tank, no rust or any debris that could be clogging the pump filter. Old fuel pump filter with 250,000 miles on it (yikes!) looked great.
- Replaced FPR (vacuum line fouled with fuel)
- Tested spark, appears to be good (but I do not know quality of spark)
- Cleaned throttle body
- Replaced ICV hose
- Replaced valve cover breather hose
- Replaced clamps on all vacuum hoses
- Epoxied the metal vacuum fittings onto the throttle body
- Accidentally snapped the wire off my impulse sensor on the spark plug wires while I was doing the cap and rotor like a tard
- Attempted to check fuel pressure on the rail, but the fuel line's end was pretty rotted so I gave up -- How hard is this hose to access/replace? Is there enough slack to slice the end off?
- Attempted to stomp test, but the car won't stomp. TPS/cables are adjusted and confirmed good, assuming I have an old ECU (1988 model, it could go either way depending on production date)
- Bled coolant when I needed to
I am running out of culprits and I still don't know what's going on with the car. I'm also running out of money, this has burned through my savings and driving is my only option to commute. Car is throwing a CEL, but I can't stomp to see the code and I can't find a place to rent me a code reader that will work on this car.
Also another thing, the car revs when I spray carb cleaner on the left side of the throttle body indicating unmetered air is getting in somewhere over there. The problem is, I've already sealed up the metal fittings, replaced the ICV hose, replaced the crankcase breather hose, so there shouldn't be anything else that can possibly vaccum leak over there can there? WTF? The only other thing over there I can think of are three coolant hoses.
The only things left I can even think that could be causing this are the ICV, ECU, or the fuel injectors. I'm almost so out of things to diagnose that I'm beginning to suspect very unlikely things like a skipped tooth on my T-belt. Any ideas? I'm grasping at straws here and both of the local mechanics I've had recommended to me never returned my calls.
Bonus points if anyone who reads this lives vaguely around the Seattle area who has a known good ECU or ICV I could test out, or one of those Peake code readers. I can probably get the car to you, worst case I just give you collateral or cover your gas and lunch to come out to me.
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