Car just died on me (v. complete with smoke)

[Tbolt]

So I am driving home on my typical commute. I stop at royal farms and fill up on 93 octane. I cross a bridge and notice that my car had a slight stumble in 3rd. It only happened once crossing the bridge and I had noticed it but shrugged it off. Then I am sitting at a light about a mile from my house and I notice it is idle'n a LITTLE off. When I pull ahead not even 300 yards and the car just starts to give. I am giving it full throttle and it wouldn't rev passed 2k rpm with or without the clutch engaged. It is stumbling like crazy and the exhaust is popping... I drive it maybe 200 yards and pull over asap, it was then the power steering died.

Now I get out immediately and the undercarriage is smoking pretty fiercely from what I have no clue. I can't see any part in particular smoking. I look in the engine bay and it wasn't smoking. It seemed like it was coming from either the fuel tank area or the exhaust. I am just going to have it towed to a german specialty shop. Its a damn shame though, I would have never expected to be left stranded in my e30 =(

/end rant

Any thoughts on what is wrong? Possibly fuel pump going bad? How that would make it smoke is beyond me though.

snapped this though

[M-technik-3]

Color smoke? smells, seriously we have no clue. You need to be more descriptive.

[Tbolt]

white-ish smoke Smelled like something I cannot describe, wasn't a very strong or pronounced odor. It wasn't coolant smell though

it died about 500 yards from me, and i have a spare fuel pump. I am going to walk down and swap it and try to start it up.

[Vince30]

The fuel pump is an electric motor witch can smoke if it blows. But usualy i hear they just quit.

[M-technik-3]

So the smoke was coming from the tailpipe? White smoke sounds like a head gasket.

[Tbolt]

really? if the heads blown then its certainly 24v time

but i really dont have money or skill to do that right now.

the tailpipe was NOT smoking though, it was just smoking from the undercarriage. it was strange it wasn't throwing any lights either.

I have an 88 so im not sure if the fuel pump is inside the tank (accessible from the rear seat) or on the outside, im going to go look and swap the pumps

[M-technik-3]

From the underside you say, do you have a tire rubbing? or a Guibo rubbing.

Diagnosis it first before tossing parts at it.

[Tbolt]

no, this was ALOT of smoke for either of those. new guibo anyway

[Tbolt]

Fuck, I was looking to have it towed to my local german shop but of course they are on vacation until monday =(

I am only making one trip to my car, how can i diagnose it?

ill bring my camera and record the startup, but anything else i should test for?

[Tbolt]

officially the strangest thing ever...I just went to it and it started up and seemed like it was running fine so I drove it home. Now it seems to be completely fine, wtf! good to know the head is not blown right?

could it just have been shitty royal farm gas?

i have a bav auto 93 chip

[slo325i]

wow!!glad you drove it home. Talk about crazy intermittent problem...

[Tbolt]

So I am thinking it was possibly bad gas. I am going to call royal farms and see if they have had any complaints. What else should I do?

[nando]

clogged cat?

[jlevie]

The smoke could be from an oil leak. It doesn't take much oil on the exhaust to create a noticeable amount of smoke.

The missing and loss of power could be most anything, But since you'd just filled the car with gas, I'd immediately think of fuel starvation that stirred up sediment in tank. That sediment would fall off the pump's inlet screen when the car sat for a while and could explain why it runs okay now.

Pull the pump and level sensor from the right side of the tank and use a stick to stir the bottom of the tank. If there's a layer of sediment, you'll feel it. The fix would be a replacement tank or acid cleaning and sealing this tank.

[Tbolt]

Thanks for the responses, I may just take it to a shop and tell them what happened.

My engine does leak a little oil, but I can't imagine it being that coincidental that the sputtering and loss of power was a oil leak combined with something else at the exact same time.

I will pull the pump/sender tomorrow am and check the bottom for sediment...any particular tool that works good?

Clogged cat seems possible how can I check for sure? I assume removing it