Cleaned Engine Bay- Now

[e30vert]

I just sprayed my engine bay and engine with Castrol Super Clean so that I could do a good general degreasing and clean the engine parts and bay. I left it on for a short period of time - less than 5 min on a cold engine, then I squirted it off with liberal amounts of water, lots of water so that I could get all the cleaner and dirt/grime off the engine. It worked pretty good to clean it up.
That was yesterday.

Today , car starts fine, BUT my check engine light is on - WTF?

So I let my vert warm up and then drive about a mile, there is some slight hesitation and missing , but not the chug a chug chug type of missing where you get jerked around violently. So Im thinking ,damn must have got some water past the spark plug boots or in the coil boot or something. I return home , pull each of the spark plug boots and coil boot. No water , no residue? I then inspect each of the electircal connections that I can see in the engine bay to make sure they are tight. They are. So I figure there is water buildup somewhere and that is causing the check engine light.

Then I drive it again later in the day. Now I notice when I come to a stop the engine idle goes down to just about 1 grand and stays there for about 5 seconds and then creeps down to where it should be at about 800 .


This is weird stuff. Whats my issue? I know someone must have had this exact same thing happen with thier E30.

Car runs pretty much fine besides that.

[joecoolinatl]

sounds like you got your distributor wet

[e30vert]

Ill check it. Thanks for the reply.

[bichmgnt]

Check the boot between the air filter and the throttle body. Might be cracked.

Steve

[silversleeper]

post pics bitch!!!!! :D

[e30vert]

bichmgnt - Is EXACTLY right!

The elbow boot must have been just a bit cracked letting in some air for a while and since I sprayed on that Castrol Super Clean -that stuff must have eaten the rubber boot away a bit more as there are 2 small cracks and one that is totally cracked all the way through~!! This causes excessive stumbling and idle fluctuations !! I pushed on the boot some and it cracked right through and now it runs much worse so I know thats the issue. Thanks for all the replys and help.

Pictures of the engine compartment? What nimrod asked for that? How about I take a picture of me putting my boot up your ass? Then you can diagnose that.

[Ducati]

Dude chill, he just wanted to see your engine bay..

[silversleeper]

bichmgnt - Is EXACTLY right!

The elbow boot must have been just a bit cracked letting in some air for a while and since I sprayed on that Castrol Super Clean -that stuff must have eaten the rubber boot away a bit more as there are 2 small cracks and one that is totally cracked all the way through~!! This causes excessive stumbling and idle fluctuations !! I pushed on the boot some and it cracked right through and now it runs much worse so I know thats the issue. Thanks for all the replys and help.

Pictures of the engine compartment? What nimrod asked for that? How about I take a picture of me putting my boot up your ass? Then you can diagnose that.

Chill man... take note of the smiley!

[kowalski]

i thought it was kinda funny. sercasm?

[e30vert]

Check Engine Light is still on????

Update:

I replaced the rubber elbow that goes to the intake manifold as it was cracked and though I solved it. Then I noticed some cracks in the other rubber boot on the manifold - the slightly curved one that gets wider on one end. Thought I had it. In the process of changing that boot the small metal elbow that goes into the intake manifold came out and was very loose when reinstalling it. This was a possible cause of vacumme leak so I JB welded that elbow in and same with the one on the right side so that they would be sealed up. I will never need to remove them anyway.

Thought I had it. Nope. Engine light went off and then after idling for about 30-40 seconds idle became a bit erratic and dropped to 500 rpm and then the check engine light came on again!

Checked the Bentley to see how I can get the codes. Says that pre -88 production needs a code reader , but 88 and newer can do the
Turn key to on position and depress accellerator 5 times quick and the codes should flash (i.e. Check Engine light) Tried this even though I know my e30vert is late 87 production build 12/87 to be exact.

No luck, No codes.

How can I get the codes? Anyone have a rentable code reader? Loan ? Any ideas?

Thanks for all the help .



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[nando]

if you get no codes, you are either doing it wrong or your throttle position switch is out. a bad TPS could also cause a poor idle.

edit: you just said that only 88+ can do the pedal trick, but you have a 12/87.. seems like that won't work for you.

[e30vert]

The check engine light finally went off. I figured that something just needed to seriously dry out and had taken many steps to solve the issue. Sure enough after waiting about 2 weeks the check engine light turned off and no more issues with it.

Probably the Distributor cap had some moisture inside and was allowing misfires and then the inside finally dried out....

[deejayrock]

also check

Hey e30vert,
I had erratic idleing on my 89 325is, if it continues check your fuel filter and fuel pressure regulator, I replaced those and it purs like a kitten now. Another solution to cleaning the engine bay (if you didn't say this already) is that after spraying down the engine bay, take an air compressor and get the air blowing attachment and blow dry your engine bay, unplug spark plug wires and blow them out, just in case water gets into them, do this where connectors are as well. Just trying to pass on some info, Thanks. Jai

[e30vert]

Good thoughts! Thanks!

I may just change out my fuel filter and pressure regulator in the future as preventative maintainence. Couldnt hurt

[deejayrock]

yep

Yeah, at first i thought it had something to do with the ingition syste (plugs, wires, cap, rotor) but i knew the car would start but it was being starved from fuel. I pretty much did the process of elimination in the fuel system...take off your gas cap to release pressure....
1) made sure my fuel pump was working
2) make sure lines aren't clogged
(take off fuel filter (watch your eyes) and get a big jar and start the car and see if fuel is coming out)
3) blow throught the fuel filter to see if it is hard to blow through, if so replace.
4) check the fuel pressure regulator (watch out for the fountain of fuel in your face)
5) replace everything and listen to her pur=)