Snipped AC belt, now the car wont run

[taiden]

This is about a 1985 318i sedan.


She was running beautifully all day. Just an hour ago I decided to start tracking down a water leak I have that's getting into my rear driver's side foot well. To do this I drove the car on ramps.

Anyhow. I ended up fixing my sunroof drains (bonus!), and while I was down there I noticed that the AC compressor bracket was broken, so I decided to snip off the AC compressor belt. Job done, go to start the car to drive it off the ramps.

Well, it wouldn't start.

I figured fuel starvation? But my gas meter is right at the halfway point. My speedometer and SI board don't work anyway though so I have no idea if the gas meter works.

I pushed the car off the ramps and tried again. No luck.

I decided to go get some gas from the shed. It's one of those brilliant new safety gas tanks that saves me and the earth from the toxic gasoline. It also saves me from being able to pour it with any kind of accuracy. On top of that it saves my gas tank from being filled with gasoline because it can't articulate the safety flap in the filler neck. Luckily, it finally demonstrated it's undeniable safety by delivering gas to all over the side of my car, my pant leg, and the driveway.

I ended up transferring the gas to another can, and used the old unsafe, environmentally unaware gas can to spill not a single drop while effectively delivering the gasoline to the tank.

Car still wont start. If I whack the throttle wide open and crank it will start but it will miss and stumble and as soon as I take my foot off the throttle it will die.

Battery voltage is 11.5v with the car off. Battery light turns off when the car is above cranking speed. I tried 'flashing' accessories with the key to prime the pump.

Anyone want a free gas can?

[Hey_You]

Check your coolant temperature sensor. That bugger can cause you a mountain of frusteration. I too snipped off my A/C belt a long time ago...no problems. Also check your fuel pressure at the rail.

[Simon S]

Wish I could be of some help regarding your engine running.

On a side note though - I'm with you on the frustration of using newer gas canisters.

Recently picked one up - and holy jesus is it a bitch to use. Actually has a safety catch - then a f'ing push lever after that..

Managed to not get too much on car or ground - but it feels like it takes forty five fucking minutes to pour into tank. What are they saving me from? Drinking the fucking gas? Jesus.

For every 1 person this design "saves" - at least 200 die from a frustrated user killing someone afterwards..

[StereoInstaller1]

I bet your crankshaft position sensor got trashed when the belt went

[taiden]

The belt didn't fail violently. It was a perfectly good belt which I cut off with some dikes.

I'm going to check the coolant temp sender tomorrow.

I did just go check and gap my plugs. The car is running insanely rich and it acts like it's only running on a couple cylinders.

So rich, that my driveway gets smokey if I run the car for about a minute. It smells like someone poured gas all over my driveway.

Bad coolant temp sender / bad wire to CTS can cause a car to run rich... but that rich?

And yes, those gas cans are insanity!

[StereoInstaller1]

ah, gotcha, didn't catch that.

[redsubdivisions]

You sure you didn't bump something by the ECU? Because if it's running like shit and running rich, I'd say the ECU went into some type of limp mode. Check that out when you get a chance. Happened in my 240 when I swapped out another ECU that supposedly had a daughterboard soldered in it and low and behold, it did the same thing.

[taiden]

Good idea, but the thing is limp mode is supposed to make it so you can drive the car home without damaging anything. This thing isn't going anywhere and it's smoking like a bob marly concert!

[taiden]

Last night:

First off, there is negligible current draw across the battery ground with the key out of the car. Good.

Second, I pulled all the plugs and checked them. Black with signs of fuel. This is what I expected, and I like it when things go as expected.

I cleaned up the plugs and gapped them to the larger side of OEM specs and put them back in.

Car started right up without any fuss and proceeded to run terrible like before.

It's running like it's only got a couple cylinders firing, but it would hold an idle.

I was walking around the car trying to figure out what was going on, listening to the operation of the engine for any clues. No clues to my ears, wish I had a second opinion... and then all of a sudden I noticed I was standing in a cloud of smoke that smelled like a LOT of gas.

[taiden]

Alright, a little more testing today...

With voltage across the BMW's battery at 13.4 volts (jump start) there was no difference.

I removed all the plugs to all the coolant related senders (about thirty five in total) on the thermostat. Previous owner put di-electric grease on all harness plugs. Nice! Wiggled them around for good measure anyway. This changed nothing.

Pulled the cap off and inspected all the wires. Plug wires look hardly used and the rotor doesn't show any catastrophic wear.

I don't know where my check engine light is, but supposedly the 1.1 Motronic ECUs automatically flash the CEL with the key on accessories to give codes. I saw nothing.

I'd like to once again stress that the car was running amazing, rolled it up onto some ramps, and now it's running pig rich and like it's missing a lot. It's totally undriveable. All I did was pour water down my sunroof drains and cut the AC belt.

I'm very tempted to go get another belt and put it back on... wouldn't it be weird if it started again?

[taiden]

I just remembered something. When I turn the key to accessories I can hear the cruise control motor doing some weird things.

[taiden]

Compression is good. 165 - 165 - 165 - 165 cold.
Just did my valve lash. I went for 0.007" cold.

Tomorrow I am going to check spark and timing.
Soon I will check fuel pressure.

So no one has ANY ideas what could fail instantly that would cause this?

[chadthestampede]

I decided to go get some gas from the shed. It's one of those brilliant new safety gas tanks that saves me and the earth from the toxic gasoline. It also saves me from being able to pour it with any kind of accuracy. On top of that it saves my gas tank from being filled with gasoline because it can't articulate the safety flap in the filler neck. Luckily, it finally demonstrated it's undeniable safety by delivering gas to all over the side of my car, my pant leg, and the driveway.

I just want to say I lol'd hard at this.

[taiden]

Few things to add:

coolant temp sender passed the test
thermo timer switch passed the test
I have proper spark on all four cylinders

When I pull the oil cap off, the car continues to run like shit. I believe this means I have huge amounts of vacuum leaks. Lucky me.

[taiden]

My intake boot has no cracks that pass through. It is starting to crack though.

Although the intake boot does have a LOT of oil in it. SO much that I decided to let it drip out into a pan for a few minutes.

Also vacuum at idle is 4-3 in. Hg