Car feels like it's intermittently braking, but its not the brakes, ideas???

[TomRat]

I have the same problem with my auto 2.7L. I can hear it, feel it but RPM stays the same. Only happens between 1500-3000 RPM. Its been doing it for over a year, I just didnt drive it much but now I have a job again and its my only car so I'll be following this. I do have a squeak somewhere upfront now on the engine.

About to post an update below on some interesting things I found, PS I just looked at your build thread, incredible car man, looks really stunning!!!

[TomRat]

Another update, I'm doing these in case any one in the future ever has such issues btw haha! So I put the rear of the car on jack stands today, put it in first and let it idle, just as I felt, the rear wheels were definitely intermittently slowing down, the motor would also dip in tone when the slowing occur, so I put the car in neutral and the idle was fluctuating alot. I decided to remove the distributor cap and rotor which revealed some extensive wear and tear, see pics. Ordered new parts so we'll see if this fixes anything, next steps from here will also be compression test and injector check.

[88BlackS-ETA]

Thanks!

I might need to replace my cap and rotor. This problem for me started after my car sat for over a year for the paint job. I did replace them 8 years ago... hmmm, need to pull them and check.

[325e '87]

My sons eta kind of has a similar condition, the power delivery was inconsistent and the wierd feeling was similar to what’s described here. We replaced most of the sensors and ignition parts, cleaned the fuel system and used new pumps.

The problem went away when we got an upgraded chip in the dme. I know they’re not cheap and I can’t guarantee the result but it fixed our problem that seems very similar to yours.