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an eta would smoke me

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    an eta would smoke me

    So I let a roommate borrow my car, trying to be the nice guy that I am, because he bent a rim hitting a pothole (going allegedly 20 mph, but that is irrelevant). I asked for the car back when he was making no progress on repairing his wheel 3 weeks after the incident and it seemed like he was abusing his priviledge to drive my car.

    To the problem: When I got the car back, it was idling terribly whilst shaking the entire car relatively violently. The shaking gets less and less violent the higher you get in the RPMs. The odd thing is that it decelerates smoothly :? Another thing to note is that there is a severe power loss. My car is now quite possibly the slowest car on the road. I haven't taken it on the freeway since I got the car back, but I imagine it would merge into traffic at about 30-40mph if I was wide open throttle--it is that bad. Lastly, whether irrelevant or not, the car runs relatively rich at idle, and the exhaust still has a gasoline smell to it (which may or may not indicate that all of the fuel is being ignited).

    I don't know if this problem has anything to do with letting my roommate drive the car, or if the problem was simply coincidental. I just thought I would give some background into the problem to give you all a better idea to the situation. Albeit my roommate, nor anyone else for that matter, will be driving my car ever again--lesson learned. Any help to the problem would be greatly appreciated as it would save me a ton of time snooping around under the hood with half a clue of what I'm doing. I'd like my e30 to get me around a little faster than a tricycle :oops: Thanks in advance!

    -Tyler

    #2
    Check the rubber boot in between the air flow meter and the throttle body. May have cracks, or holes.
    May also be a fuel pressure regulator problem. Check the pressure.

    Oh yea, and I resent your comment about eta's. lol ETA POWER!

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      #3
      make sure its firing on all cylinders, check injector harness

      Comment


        #4
        note to self: never let roomate drive e30

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by h0lmes
          note to self: never let roomate drive e30
          I'll say......

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by DaN
            Check the rubber boot in between the air flow meter and the throttle body. May have cracks, or holes.
            Def. check this first. That was my problem when I first got my car.
            Project Thread | Instagram | Phoenix, Arizona Events Thread

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              #7
              Originally posted by eightyfoure
              Originally posted by DaN
              Check the rubber boot in between the air flow meter and the throttle body. May have cracks, or holes.
              Def. check this first. That was my problem when I first got my car.
              common prob on all E30's. check it.
              '91 318is

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                #8
                I would also crawl underneath the car and see if your, er, friend may have bottomed your car out and caused a "pinch" in the exhaust system or in some way trashed your cat. Excessive back-pressure will cause the symptoms you describe...Just my .02.

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                  #9
                  Shaking, horrible performance, too much unburnt fuel...$20 on a broken exhuast side rocker arm.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    When is the last time you did the timing belt? It may have slipped causing your timing to go way off.


                    Keep it slideways!!

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                      #11
                      No good deed goes unpunished.

                      Ask your friend what happened.

                      this is why i dont like to borrow peoples stuff. IF it brakes of screws up we have problems. Dont let people borrow stuff you cant afford to loose. I let a friend borrow my car for a few days with the knowlegde that I could tolerate him killing my car. anyway hopefully it is just a vacuum leak. maybe a bad o2 sensor.. Does it run bad when it is cold? could be a bad fuel pump relay. Could be alot of things. Take some time and go through the whole car and make sure it is in good shape. These are old cars and things will come up. I just fixed about everything with my 325i and now it runs like a champ.

                      1. timing belt (If it is unknown replacement or over 60K)
                      2. plugs and cap and rotor
                      3. new afm boot.
                      4. new breather hose
                      5. New pvc hose.

                      How old are you and where do you live. Maybe someone nearby can help you get it figured out. Could be a bad afm swap it out and see.

                      If you lived close to me I would cruise over and look at it.

                      good luck

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by the bob
                        No good deed goes unpunished.

                        Ask your friend what happened.

                        this is why i dont like to borrow peoples stuff. IF it brakes of screws up we have problems. Dont let people borrow stuff you cant afford to loose. I let a friend borrow my car for a few days with the knowlegde that I could tolerate him killing my car. anyway hopefully it is just a vacuum leak. maybe a bad o2 sensor.. Does it run bad when it is cold? could be a bad fuel pump relay. Could be alot of things. Take some time and go through the whole car and make sure it is in good shape. These are old cars and things will come up. I just fixed about everything with my 325i and now it runs like a champ.

                        1. timing belt (If it is unknown replacement or over 60K)
                        2. plugs and cap and rotor
                        3. new afm boot.
                        4. new breather hose
                        5. New pvc hose.

                        How old are you and where do you live. Maybe someone nearby can help you get it figured out. Could be a bad afm swap it out and see.

                        If you lived close to me I would cruise over and look at it.

                        good luck
                        First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for their help. I would not have thought of most of these suggestions to save my life.

                        As for where I live, I am currently living in San Luis Obispo attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. It's about an hour north of Santa Barbara, where I grew up. I'm 20 years old.

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                          #13
                          Now I am 34 year old guy who would go help you out but I am 2000 miles away.

                          let us kinw what you find out with your car and hope for a vacuum leak

                          good luck

                          bob

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Now I am 34 year old guy who would go help you out but I am 2000 miles away.

                            let us knowwhat you find out with your car and hope for a vacuum leak

                            good luck

                            bob

                            Comment


                              #15
                              I would check the Rocker arms( remove the valve cover) if the other things dont seem to be it. I broke a rocker overreving and my car ran exactly like what your talking about. Sounds like your roomate took the car out and drover this piss out of it. Youll be able to tell if it was his fault. If its a cracked AFM boot or something like that then its just regular wear and tear. But theres way's of telling if a car has been abused. I know because I was the one abusing my car and ended up with similar simptoms. I hope this helped. Im not trying to blame it on your roomie. Just sayin theres way's of finding out. Ask him about it. He should be able to tell you when it started happening.

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