HELP engine starts to die and CEL

[mkras218]

Help!
'89 325i m20b25
All of a sudden while driving home today my car started to buck around 3-4K rpms (my tach doesn't work), and the check engine light would flash until I started to let off the throttle. Downshifting was no help nor upshifting, so I'm wondering what is wrong with the car it just loses power and eventually won't go. I had to pull over a few times into parking lots on the way home.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

The light that flashes is the red check engine light but it will stay on only for a little bit

[UlrichFennec]

Do a stomp test. Turn the key to the ON position, but don't start the car. Fully press the accelerator in 5 times in quick succession. Your CEL will turn on and then you should get a series of flashes from the CEL. This is the code it's throwing out. It's four digits and will work like this example:

1 flash = 1
pause
x number of flashes = 1x
pause
x number of flashes = 1xx
pause
x number of flashes = 1xxx

Then it will pause again and display a different code if you have more than one. Once it's finished cycling through all the codes, it will start over from the first code and cycle through them all again.

Refer to this for the codes you have going off: http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/669551

This will help narrow down where the problem /may/ be.