Stalled again - on freeway... help!

[rollinwardle]

I just replaced the distributor cap, rotor, and plugs in my '84 318i and after a 15-20 minute drive... the engine quit. Power still worked, all my dash lights were on. Tok about 5-10 minutes to get it to restart. Then it ran fine until I got home after driving another 20 minutes. And it would turn over while I was waiting, but just would not start.

HELP!
Just bought the car... it's only got 93000 miles and I know the valves may need to be adjusted, but would loose valves cause this???


Rolly

[llll1l1ll]

Loose valves wouldn't cause that

Sounds like a fuel/electrical issue

Check the fuel pump(s)

Does it hesitate at all, or does it just flat out stop?

[rollinwardle]

The few times it's done it it just dies. Everytime I've been at about 70-75mph and then suddenly no more power, tach slowly goes down, but still all the lights are on.

I'm going to replace the fuel filter in a few minutes and see what that does for it.
Any "easy" test for the fuel pumps? I know Fuse #11 is for the fuel pump... anyone know what else runs through Fuse #11?

Thanks for the reply!



Rolly

[llll1l1ll]

My car used to do something similar to that. It would just randomly die; when starting it I would have to wait for the check engine light to come on before it would crank over.

However, it only truly did this during the humid summers--it was a really weird problem.

I did the "press-the-gas-pedal-5-times-in-a-row-really-fast" thing and it said it was my throttle position sensor. After my car "got used" to the summer, it stopped doing this. It was the quirkiest thing ever.

If your engine has a diagnostic utility--use it!