Huge vacuum leak

[Erick]

ok here are the symptoms:

- Huge loss of power while driving.
- Engine will not stay on by itself
- If I press the gas pedal to any specific rev ( like 4k ) and hold the pedal at that spot, the revs will hold for a second and drop back to zero
- engine bay ( from the driver's side of the engine ) has a powerful gas smell
- check engine light came on.... I did the 5 gas pedal push trick, I got 1222..... Bentley said it was oxygen sensor running abnormal parameters: either too rich ( my guess ) or too lean
- intake sound when I mash the gas is a lot louder ( suction type sound..... a quick "whoosh" ). It always had that sound, but now it's really loud.

Sidenote: I blew a #10 fuse ( for instrument panel's stuff ).... coincidence maybe?

I cant recall any more symptoms but those are the major ones. It's really dark at night and I dont have time to look around and see what's wrong right now so let me know what you guys guess so I have something to look on and investigate tomorrow.

As it is, the car is barely drivable..... and it's probably burning gas like a motherfucker.

Thanks in advance,
Erick

[m42technic]

Have you checked you intake bellows at all?

[bimmer8604]

check the hose that runs from the FPR to the intake manifold. give it a good tug cause it may look like its okay, but when you touch it or tug on it you might find otherwise. had this problem on both of my e30s.

Kyle

[mikeedler]

just happened to my best friends e30 last week--- broken rocker arm!!! all the symptoms were the same, and it wasnt even clattering at all, jus ran like it was firing on 5 cyl. had it fixed in a couple of hours

[Erick]

Have you checked you intake bellows at all?

Yeah, this problem has been happening for more than a while so I had that part replaced a couple of month's ago. It would usually just oscillate in the idle, but never got to this point.

check the hose that runs from the FPR to the intake manifold. give it a good tug cause it may look like its okay, but when you touch it or tug on it you might find otherwise. had this problem on both of my e30s.

Kyle

I thought of that and I took a look at that yesterday. I checked the other hose ( going from the FPR back ) because the smell came from the driver's side of the engine. I played around with it in the dark and it "looks" tight, but I'd have to recheck. As for the FPR - intake hose. I looked at it when it first started, and it "looked" to be alright..... rechecking wouldnt hurt.

just happened to my best friends e30 last week--- broken rocker arm!!! all the symptoms were the same, and it wasnt even clattering at all, jus ran like it was firing on 5 cyl. had it fixed in a couple of hours

I'll pull out the valve cover and take a look.

Thanks a lot for the info so far guys, let me know if anyone has more ideas.
Erick