Wont run about 2.5k after warming up

[Soly]

I recently bought this 1986 325es with a bad water pump, i'm coming from DSMs so I'm mechanically capable. I did the water pump, timing belt, new hoses, belts blah blah. So I fired it up and it drove fine until it started to get warm, a little over half. It then brought up the "check" light flashing in single intervals and would run like absolute crap. It won't run about 2.5k rpms and if I give it gas it will bog down and die.

I looked online and found that the single flashing light means its an air flow sensor malfunction so I went to the junkyard and found a near perfect looking one and bought that to switch it out. To my misfortune it still ran the same and threw the same single flashing light.

What else can I try to replace/check? I'm extremely new to these cars but i'm use to tearing apart my 91 gsx, on e85 , apart and I just don't know where to start.

Any ideas are welcomed!

[E30_fiend]

i'm coming from DSMs so I'm mechanically capable

lol I love it.

First place to start would be with anything that you took off in order to do the repairs you mentioned. Other than that, you need to do a stomp test on the car. What you do is turn the key to the running postition and hit the gas pedal to the floor 5 times. Your check engine light will begine to flash in a sequence. Disregard the first LONG flash. Once the first long flash has finished, theats when you will start to read codes. Read the number of flashes before a short pause. Like this:

bliiiiiiiiiiiiiink...blink...blinkblinkblinkblink. ..blinkblinkblinkblink...blinkblinkblinkblink...bl iiiiiiiiiink

the sequence will start and end with the long blink. The code I just wrote is the ZERO PROBLEMS code. In terms of blinks it will read as 1444.

Another thing I have never heard of is the check engine light blinking like that. Motronic, the computer operating system, when it sees a fault, it turns the light on. It doesn't actually blink while the fault is happening. I think the light you are seeing is the orange flashing CHECK light. If you tap the brake pedal and push the CHECK button in the overhead check panel, this light should stop blinking.

I am in the DSM game too man. Maybe we can help eachother out lol. My 1ga is sitting with a popped HG right now. . .

PM me or text me if you need any further diagnosing. 80579821zeronine


Taylor

[Soly]

It's an 86 and unfortunately the stop test only works for 88+ years. I just bought this car from someone with the water pumped fucked off and after I did the timing belt and other stuff it was running like this so i'm assuming it's not something I did but a condition that came from the car.

[E30_fiend]

shit, I guess I overlooked the 86 part.

So are you sure its the CHECK ENGINE light thats flashing? Not the CHECK light?


Taylor

[Soly]

So are you sure its the CHECK ENGINE light thats flashing? Not the CHECK light?


Taylor

Sorry, that's what I meant. The "check" light is flashing.

So far i'm thinking either coolent temp sensor, o2 sensor, or a bad fuelpump. Any other ideas?

[E30_fiend]

The CHECK light is just an indicator for you to look at your overhead panel. Nothing to really worry about. All the really important indicators have their own lights in the gauge cluster.

I would change the o2 and the CTS either way. If you don't have record of them ever being changed, its very likely that they haven't. A bad o2 will cause all kinds of problems with idle, revving etc. It could very well be your problem. When you did the timing belt, did you take off any vacuum hoses? lines? Its just odd to me that your problem is a warm problem and not cold. If it were a cold problem, that would indicated a gasket/vacuum leak of some sort. With it being a warm condition, I would think its something more down stream like the o2 sensor.

Change the o2 and the coolant sensor and see how it reacts to that. If nothing changes, start inspecting for vacuum leaks with a smoke machine or a can of carb cleaner.


Taylor